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Investigating The Protective Effects Of Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase On Neuronal Metabolism And Resistance To Amyloid-Beta, Olivia Singh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Maintenance of telomere length during cell division is dependent on the catalytic subunit telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), which adds TTAGGG repeats to the ends of chromosomes to prevent telomere shortening during DNA replication. However, non-telomeric roles of TERT have emerged under oxidative stress whereby TERT translocates from the nucleus to the mitochondria and protects against mitochondrial dysfunction through a poorly defined mechanism. A major pathological feature of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the progressive accumulation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptide within the cortex and hippocampus. Aβ can directly interfere with mitochondrial respiration and promote mitochondrial dysfunction, ROS production, and neuronal cell death. …