Chapter 5 - Cross-talk between NF-κB and telomerase in cancer: Implications in therapy

Abstract

Inflammation and replicative immortality are essential for cancer development. Inflammation is primarily driven by the activation of the NF-κB pathway and replicative immortality is mostly achieved by telomerase activation, which maintains telomere length. Interestingly, NF-κB and telomerase activity coexist in cancers and display a very intricate connection. NF-κB regulates the transcription of telomerase catalytic subunit, telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and TERT activates the NF-κB-dependent transcriptional activity. Recently, several novel aspects of this interplay have been discovered. These include uncovering the role of non-canonical NF-κB pathway in transcriptional activation of mutant TERT promoter in cancer cells and the roles of TERT and telomerase RNA component (TERC) in regulating NF-κB transcriptional activity. Here, we present the connections between NF-κB proteins and telomerase in cancer cells along with recent findings, followed by their implications in cancer therapy.