Open Access Mini Review

Telomerase and the Brain: A Special Relationship

Gabriele Saretzki*

Department of Ageing Biology, UK

Corresponding Author

Received Date: February 18, 2019;  Published Date: February 22, 2019

Abstract

While telomerase is best studied in its canonical function on telomere maintenance during cell division, various non-canonical functions beyond any telomere involvement and nuclear localisation of the protein part TERT (Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase) have been discovered in recent years. It currently emerges that the TERT protein seems to have a particular important function in the brain and neurons. While in most human somatic tissues the TERT component is downregulated while the RNA component TR/ TERC persists, in human brain it seems to be the opposite: the RNA component is downregulated early during development and TERT persists even in neurons from old brain. This mini-review gives a brief overview of the special relationship of telomerase in the brain which might be exploited in future therapies of neurodegenerative diseases.

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