Complicating WILT

Whole-body Interdiction of Lengthening of Telomeres (WILT) is the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) answer to cancer, filed under the OncoSENS project category. Get to the root of it all, and yank that root out: This is a very ambitious but potentially far more comprehensive and long-term approach to combating cancer than anything currently available or in development. It is based on the one inescapable vulnerability that all cancer cells share in common: their absolute need to renew their telomeres, the long stretches of gibberish DNA that cap their chromosomes. Telomeres fulfil a role that is similar to that of the nibs on the tips of your shoelaces, keeping the DNA from becoming frayed and unravelled. Each time a cell reproduces, the telomeres become a little worn down, and when a cell runs out of telomeres it quickly self-destructs. Because cancer cells reproduce at a furious pace, they quickly reach the ends of their telomeric "ropes," and need to find a way to exploit the cell’s natural machinery for renewing telomeres (telomerase and [alternative lengthening of telomeres, or ALT]) to restore normal telomere length, or their growth will come to an end. The thorough elimination of these genes from...