EPITHALON

Description

Epithalon is a peptide used to regulate the cell cycle through up-regulation of telomerase activity. The sequence of amino acids in the peptide is Alanine-Glutamate-Asparagine-Glycine. Animal studies have been done on the effects of Epithalon on suppression of spontaneous mammary tumors and spontaneous carcinogenesis. Studies have shown that the mode of action of Epithalon involves suppression of oncogene expression and modification of telomerase activity. A summary of the studies and research on telomerase is provided below.Telomerase is a specific RNA (ribonucleic acid)-dependent polymerase that elongates and maintains the length of telomeres by adding tandem repeats on the chromosomal 3′ end. The enzyme is composed of two parts: an RNA component which supplies the telomere template for elongation, and the catalytic subunit which possesses reverse transcriptase activity. These two parts work in tandem to avert telomere attrition especially in somatic cells. In vitro experiments have shown that telomere elongation promotes indefinite cellular proliferation and that suppression of telomerase activity promotes apoptosis of neoplastic cells. However, these studies have also shown that maintenance of telomere length within a range of 15-20 kilobase pairs does prevent tumorigenesis. All the research and studies done concerning telomerase do show that telomerase activity is limited to cell division through its action of stabilising the telomere length.Telomeres are located at either ends of a chromosome, and they do protect the adjacent gene sequence from shortening due to repeated replication cycles. Elongation of telomeres enables senescent cells to stabilise their telomeric length. However, excess elongation would enable such cells to exceed their Hay-flick limit via evasion of apoptosis or the post-mitotic phase; and therefore, such cells have the potential of becoming immortal and this predisposes them to neoplastic transformation.