Replies to post #6385 on Geron Corp (GERN)

[reader3]

Imetalstat interferes w/ telomerase, which means it interferes with rapidly dividing cells, I believe. Which means cancer cells.

If I understand correctly, telomeres normally get shorter with every cell division, which prevents uncontrolled division (and may be part of why we have a limited lifespan). Telomerase allows cancer cells to run rampant by ignoring one of the normal control methods.

It's possible telomerase isn't even used by normal cells, but I'm not sure about that.

This is from the corporate about page:

Telomerase is an enzyme that enables cancer cells, including malignant progenitor cells, to maintain telomere length, which provides them with the capacity for limitless, uncontrolled proliferation. Using our proprietary nucleic acid chemistry, we designed imetelstat to be an oligonucleotide that targets and binds with high affinity to the active site of telomerase, thereby directly inhibiting telomerase activity and impeding malignant cell proliferation.

https://www.geron.com/about/overview/

And here's a wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telomerase