Autophagy acts as a safeguard mechanism against G-quadruplex ligand-mediated DNA damage.

G-quadruplex ligands have attracted considerable interest as novel anticancer therapeutics due to their capability to interfere with guanosine-rich DNA/RNA sequences, such as telomeres. Elucidation of the structures of telomeric G-quadruplexes has led, in the past few years, to the rational development of effective G-quadruplex-stabilizing small molecules. In the present study, we showed that short-term exposure of melanoma cells to Ant1,5--an anthracene-based ligand able to stabilize telomeric G-quadruplexes--impaired cell growth without inducing cell senescence or apoptosis.