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Identification of serum anti-human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) auto-antibodies during progression to hepatocellular carcinoma

Oncogene volume 21, pages 5946–5950 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Human telomerase reverse transcriptase, hTERT, is the catalytic component of human telomerase. Expression of hTERT confers telomerase activity, indicating that hTERT is the rate-limiting component of human telomerase. Here we report the detection of anti-hTERT auto-antibodies in the sera derived patients with hepatocellular carcinoma using recombinant, purified hTERT as an antigen in an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The levels of anti-hTERT antibodies in serum correlated with progression to hepatocellular carcinoma. In contrast, we detected only low levels of anti-hTERT auto-antibodies in the sera derived from 18 normal volunteers. The observation of hTERT auto-antibodies in the sera derived from cancer patients suggests that such auto-antibodies constitute novel and specific tumor marker.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr T Yamashita for critical comments and Ms K Kuwabara for excellent technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gastroenterology, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, Takara-Machi 13-1, Kanazawa, 920-8641, Japan

    Kenkichi Masutomi, Shuichi Kaneko, Kuniaki Arai & Kenichi Kobayashi

  2. Department of Molecular Biology, Division of Molecular Oncology, Cancer Research Institute, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan

    Mami Yasukawa, Kuniaki Arai & Seishi Murakami

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  1. Kenkichi Masutomi
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  2. Shuichi Kaneko
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Correspondence to Shuichi Kaneko.

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Masutomi, K., Kaneko, S., Yasukawa, M. et al. Identification of serum anti-human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) auto-antibodies during progression to hepatocellular carcinoma. Oncogene 21, 5946–5950 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1205788

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1205788

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