Cloning of alternative isoforms of the catalytic subunit of the human telomerase (HTERT)

Most human tumors, including cervical cancer, are characterized by telomerase activation (cell proliferation activation enzyme). Such activation is implemented in the elongation of the terminal segments (telomeres) of the telomerase chromosome. The gene of the enzyme is RNA-encoded, with the RNA in tumors being observed in a few isoforms. The hTERT RNA role in cell activation and control was simulated using cervical cancer, as well as its pretumoral states (CIN), as a model object. The goal of this work was to clone human hTERT isoforms (normal, α, ß, and α + ß splice variants). The genetic constructions containing normal hTERT sequence and α- and ß-deletion variants based on the lentivirus vector pR780 were obtained. The α- and ß-deletion variants were not obtained in this variant because of methodological problems. In fur- ther research, we plan to implement splice variants of hTERT in eukaryotic human cells.