[Detection of telomerase activity and its clinical application]

Telomerase is a ribonuclear protein that is detected in more than 90% of primary cancer tissues using a telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay, thus, telomerase is considered to be a novel marker for cancer. Telomerase activity is not detectable in somatic cells, except for hematopoietic cells and cryptic cells in the intestine and hair follicles, thus, quantitation of telomerase is important to delineate clinical implication of telomerase activity. We have developed semiquantitative fluorescence-based TRAP assay. Moreover, we also developed an in situ TRAP assay that detects telomerase activity at the cellular level. Thus, using these TRAP assays, we are able to detect telomerase activity in various kinds of extracts or cytological specimens and therefore these applications may have additive information in the early detection of cancer and monitoring disease condition.