TELOMERES, AGAIN

 

Linda, on top of the world.

Mt. Baker in the far background

 

http://ljb-over the concepty of telomeres and telomerasequiltcutie.blogspot.com/2012/07/relaxing-on-beach-somewhere-1988.html

Clicking on that will bring you, as if by magic, to the first time I stumbled over the concept of telomeres and telomerase.  If you read that blog you will instantly know as much about these important things as I do, and maybe more.  I mention this because the article I am about to describe arose from pure biological research into –  telomeres, of course.

The work was done at NYU, with contributions from several other places.  Apparently it began as pure curiosity-driven biology; the question: how do cells prevent telomeric ends of chromosomes from sticking together.  Part of the answer appears to be the existence of an enzyme – newly discovered? – called polymerase theta (abbreviated PolQ, for some reason.)  “Inhibiting” the action of this  stuff “dramatically slows the growth of tumor cells tied to BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations.”  I think the remainder of the article attempts to explain why, or how - but I'm not sure.  There is a lot of science that I don’t understand tucked into this short article.  For me, the take-aways are rather simple:

Not a cure, but helpful nonetheless.  Long remissions are good.

Time and money spent on pure cellular biology are useful, and are to be encouraged.

Here it is.  Somebody explain it to me.

http://www.science20.com/news_articles/polq_enzyme_action_slows_brca_tumor_growth-152848