Natural products targeting telomere maintenance

Abstract

Telomeres are repetitive sequences of DNA found at the ends of chromosomes which determine and restrict the number of replications a cell can undertake. In the majority of cancer cells, telomerase has been found to maintain the length of telomeres, conferring cell immortality and prevention of cell senescence. With the ready availability of assays to detect telomerase activity, numerous telomerase inhibitors have been discovered from a variety of natural sources. This article gives an outline of these natural product-based telomerase inhibitors and their inspiration for analogue design.