Brain HealthTERT Does Far More Than Protect Telomeres — It May Be the Brain's Master Aging Switch
Most people know telomerase for keeping chromosome ends intact, but a new opinion article in Trends in Molecular Medicine argues that TERT — the enzyme's catalytic core — has a second, largely overlooked job: acting as a master regulator of brain health. During normal aging and in diseases like Alzheimer's, the TERT gene gets epigenetically switched off, disrupting gene programs that neurons rely on for survival, plasticity, and stress resistance. Excitingly, restoring TERT to youthful levels — either genetically or with drugs — appears to reverse several aging-related brain changes and reduce hallmarks of neurodegeneration in experimental models. The review synthesizes mounting evidence that TERT is not just a telomere-maintenance enzyme but a central coordinator of whether the brain ages gracefully or succumbs to disease.
