IMR Press / FBL / Volume 25 / Issue 6 / DOI: 10.2741/4847

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
Epigenetic alterations in cancer
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1 Department of Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore, 641043, Tamil Nadu, India
2 Redox Regulation Laboratory, Department of Zoology, CBSH, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar-751003, India
Send correspondence to: Ramalingam Nirmaladevi, Department of Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore, 641043, Tamil Nadu, India, Tel.: 91-9976152000, E-mail: nirmaladevi.saravanan32@gmail.com
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2020, 25(6), 1058–1109; https://doi.org/10.2741/4847
Published: 1 March 2020
Abstract

Genetic and epigenetic modifications in DNA contribute to altered gene expression in aging and cancer. In human cancers, epigenetic changes such as DNA methylation, histone modifications, micro RNAs and nucleosome remodelling all control gene expression. The link between the genetics and epigenetics in cancer is further shown by existence of aberrant metabolism and biochemical pathways in cancer or mutation in genes that are epigenetic players. Reversal of these epigenetic changes has been clearly shown to have therapeutic value in various forms of lymphoma and preleukemia and similar results are appearing for the treatment of solid tumors. In this review, we discuss the functional effects of epigenetic changes inducible by hypoxia, the epigenetic alterations in cancer and how they contribute to tumor progression and their relevance to epigenetic therapy.

Keywords
Epigenetics
Cancer
Hypoxia
DNA Methylation
Histone Modifications
miRNAs
Chromatin.
Figures
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