Contrary to what was previously thought, some cancer cells are apparently not immortal after all.
That could leave them vulnerable to new drugs that kill aging cells.
Researchers at the University of Mainz and the Institute for Molecular Biology have investigated a mechanism in baker's yeast that protects around 15 percent of all tumor types from aging: a special way of lengthening the ends of the chromosomes, called telomeres.
Normally, telomeres get shorter with each cell division, and eventually the cells die.
Cancer cells, on the other hand, manage to lengthen their telomeres again and again.
Yeast cells are also able to do this under certain conditions.
Nevertheless, they grow more slowly after a few divisions, as the scientists showed.
They also discovered an RNA molecule that is made in the telomeres and controls the aging process.
If this molecule could be manipulated, new approaches for tumor therapy could open up.
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