Telomeric Repeat-Containing RNA (TERRA): A Review of the Literature and First Assessment in Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphomas

Abstract

Telomeric Repeat-containing RNA (TERRA) are long non-coding RNAs transcribed from telomeric DNA sequences from multiple chromosome ends. Major research efforts have been made to understand TERRA roles and functions in several physiological and pathological processes. We summarize herein available data regarding TERRA’s roles in human cells and we report the first investigation in cutaneous T-cells lymphomas (CTCL) using real-time PCR. Among the TERRA analysed, our data suggest a particular role for TERRA 16p downregulation and TERRA 11q upregulation in CTCL lymphomagenesis.

Keywords

• TERRA
• non-coding RNA
• telomere
• telomerase
• cutaneous T-cell lymphomas
• sézary syndrome