Therapeutic effects of a telomerase activated pro-drug, acycloguanosyl 5 '-thymidyltriphosphate, in hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. However, there is no effective chemiotherapy treatment for HCC. It has been shown that sustained activation of telomerase is essential for the growth and progression of several cancers including HCC, sug- gesting that telomerase could be a potential target for HCC therapy. We developped a thymidine analogue pro-drug, acy- cloguanosyl 5’-thymidyltriphosphate (ACV-TP-T) that is specifi- cally metabolized by telomerase and releases the active form of acyclovir. We investigated the anti-tumor efficacy of ACV-TP-T in in vitro and in vivo models.