Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Jul 7;12(7):e1006144.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006144. eCollection 2016 Jul.

Telomere Length and the Cancer-Atherosclerosis Trade-Off

Rivka C Stone  1 , Kent Horvath  1 , Jeremy D Kark  2 , Ezra Susser  3   4 , Sarah A Tishkoff  5   6 , Abraham Aviv  1
Affiliations
Review

Telomere Length and the Cancer-Atherosclerosis Trade-Off

Rivka C Stone et al. PLoS Genet. .

Abstract

Modern humans, the longest-living terrestrial mammals, display short telomeres and repressed telomerase activity in somatic tissues compared with most short-living small mammals. The dual trait of short telomeres and repressed telomerase might render humans relatively resistant to cancer compared with short-living small mammals. However, the trade-off for cancer resistance is ostensibly increased age-related degenerative diseases, principally in the form of atherosclerosis. In this communication, we discuss (a) the genetics of human telomere length, a highly heritable complex trait that is influenced by genetic ancestry, sex, and paternal age at conception, (b) how cancer might have played a role in the evolution of telomere biology across mammals, (c) evidence that in modern humans telomere length is a determinant (rather than only a biomarker) of cancer and atherosclerosis, and (d) the potential influence of relatively recent evolutionary forces in fashioning the variation in telomere length across and within populations, and their likely lasting impact on major diseases in humans. Finally, we propose venues for future research on human telomere genetics in the context of its potential role in shaping the modern human lifespan.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Telomere length (TL) and the cancer–atherosclerosis trade-off at the genomic level.
Alleles that are jointly associated with relatively short TL diminish the risk for major cancers and increase the risk for atherosclerosis, while alleles (of the same SNPs) that are jointly associated with relatively long TL increase the risk for major cancers and diminish the risk for atherosclerosis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Blackburn EH. Telomeres and telomerase: their mechanisms of action and the effects of altering their functions. FEBS letters. 2005;579(4):859–62. 10.1016/j.febslet.2004.11.036 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Harley CB. Telomere loss: mitotic clock or genetic time bomb? Mutation research. 1991;256(2–6):271–82. Epub 1991/03/01. . - PubMed
    1. van Deursen JM. The role of senescent cells in ageing. Nature. 2014;509(7501):439–46. 10.1038/nature13193 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Iles MM, Bishop DT, Taylor JC, Hayward NK, Brossard M, Cust AE, et al. The effect on melanoma risk of genes previously associated with telomere length. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2014;106(10). 10.1093/jnci/dju267 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Walsh KM, Codd V, Rice T, Nelson CP, Smirnov IV, McCoy LS, et al. Longer genotypically-estimated leukocyte telomere length is associated with increased adult glioma risk. Oncotarget. 2015;6(40):42468–77. 10.18632/oncotarget.6468 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types