The effect of anti-hTERT intrabody expression on the viability of human epithelial ovarian cell lines
Date
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Epithelial Ovarian Cancer’s high mortality rate and propensity to develop resistance against traditional therapies highlights the need for elucidation of its resistant mechanisms as well as the discovery of innovative therapies that can circumvent these mechanisms. The prevalence of hTERT expression in both EOC and chemoresistance makes it an appealing target for EOC therapy. This study evaluated the effect of anti-hTERT intrabody expression on NOSE, OVCAR-3 and CAOV-3 cell lines. Intrabody-mediated telomerase inhibition led to increased apoptosis in both CAOV-3 and OVCAR-3 cell lines, and G1/G0 cell cycle arrest occurred after 72h in CAOV-3. TERT promoter mediated intrabody expression selectively targeted cancerous epithelial ovarian tissue while maintaining viability in noncancerous epithelial ovarian cell lines. These effects were demonstrated without detectable changes in telomere length suggesting the suppression of telomere length-independent functions was likely involved in the observed changes to cellular behaviour.