Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 14, 2026

Utilizing Murine Inducible Telomerase Alleles in the Studies of Tissue Degeneration/Regeneration and Cancer
Published on: April 13, 2015
Regulation studies of telomerase gene in cancer cells by lentinan
Kamma Sreenivasulu1, Muvva Vijayalakshmi, Krothapalli Rs Sambasivarao
1Department of Biotechnology, KL University, India.
Abstract:
Lentinan a polysaccharide from medicinal mushroom i.e Lentinus, has been known to have anticancer properties. Telomerase activity is not observed in normal healthy cells, whereas in cancerous cells telomerase expression is high. Telomerase represents a promising cancer therapeutic target. We investigated the inhibitory effect of lentinan on telomerase reverse transcriptase gene (hTERT) which is essential for telomerase activity. To assess the transcriptional effect, DLD -1 cancer cells were cultured in the presence of various concentrations of lentinan. TRAP assay, RT-PCR analysis were performed to find telomerase activity and hTERT gene expression respectively. Since C-myc is known to regulate hTERT, expression of C-myc was also determined. Culturing cells with lentinan resulted in down regulation of hTERT and C-myc expression. These results indicate that lentinan inhibits telomerase activity by down regulating hTERT expression via suppression of C-myc in cancer cells.
Related Concept Videos
Replicative Cell Senescence
Telomeres and Telomerase
Telomeres and Telomerase
lncRNA - Long Non-coding RNAs
mTOR Signaling and Cancer Progression
The mTOR pathway or the...
