Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA.
Nat Rev Cancer. 2010 Oct;10(10):669-82. doi: 10.1038/nrc2931.
The discovery that cancer can be governed above and beyond the level of our DNA presents a new era for designing therapies that reverse the epigenetic state of a tumour cell. Understanding how altered chromatin dynamics leads to malignancy is essential for controlling tumour cells while sparing normal cells. Polycomb and trithorax group proteins are evolutionarily conserved and maintain chromatin in the 'off' or 'on' states, thereby preventing or promoting gene expression, respectively. Recent work highlights the dynamic interplay between these opposing classes of proteins, providing new avenues for understanding how these epigenetic regulators function in tumorigenesis.
癌症可以在我们的 DNA 水平之上进行控制的发现，为设计逆转肿瘤细胞表观遗传状态的疗法开辟了一个新时代。了解染色质动力学的改变如何导致恶性肿瘤对于控制肿瘤细胞而不损伤正常细胞是至关重要的。Polycomb 和 trithorax 组蛋白在进化上是保守的，它们维持着染色质的“关闭”或“开启”状态，从而分别阻止或促进基因表达。最近的工作强调了这两类蛋白之间的动态相互作用，为理解这些表观遗传调节剂在肿瘤发生中的作用提供了新的途径。
