Comment Re:Lot's of problems with the "therapy" (Score 2, Interesting) 318
telomerase is an enzyme that adds a tail to the end of the DNA strand during replication. this tail is folded over to form a primer for the lagging strand and eventually clipped. without the tail, about 100 base pairs of gene will be folded over instead every time replication occurs. the loss of this DNA during every replication is why we age.
telomerase is switched off in normal somatic cells. however, in cancer cells it is switched on (cancer cells are essentially immortal). the only place where telomerase is needed is in the germ line cells, which is why this treatment may have the side effect of infertility.
telomerase is switched off in normal somatic cells. however, in cancer cells it is switched on (cancer cells are essentially immortal). the only place where telomerase is needed is in the germ line cells, which is why this treatment may have the side effect of infertility.
