META THE ONE

Telomerase activators are important for anti-aging. Activate telomerase, increase telomerase, delay telomere shortening, and delay aging.

What is Telomeres and Telomerase?

Telomeres, the repetitive DNA repeat sequences at the end of linear eukaryotic chromosomes protecting chromosome ends from degradation and illegitimate recombination, play a crucial role in cell fate and aging.

Telomerase, also called telomere terminal transferase, is an enzyme made of protein and RNA subunits that elongates chromosomes by adding TTAGGG sequences to the end of existing chromosomes. It is the key enzyme for cell survival that prevents telomere shortening and the subsequent cellular senescence that is observed after many rounds of cell division.

Why do we need Telomerase?

Telomeres protect chromosome ends from being recognized as DNA damage and chromosomal rearrangements. Conventional replication leads to telomere shortening, but telomere length is maintained by the enzyme telomerase that synthesizes telomere sequences de novo onto chromosome ends. Telomerase is specialized reverse transcriptase, requiring both a catalytic protein and an essential RNA component. In the absence of telomerase, telomeres shorten progressively as cells divide, and telomere function is lost. For this reason, telomerase is required for cells that undergo many rounds of divisions, especially tumor cells and some stem cells.

Every time cells divide, their telomeres shorten, which eventually prompts them to stop dividing and die. Telomerase prevents this decline in some kinds of cells, including stem cells, by lengthening telomeres, and the hope was that activating the enzyme could slow cellular ageing.

According to Dr. Carol W. Greider, PhD, along with Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak, won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of telomerase, an enzyme that plays an important role in the division of cells, and which has a real potential to fight cancer and age-related diseases as well, “We wanted to ask genetic questions about what happens to cells when they lose telomerase.”