Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, L'Hospitalet, and Department of Physiological Sciences II, School of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Nat Med. 2011 Mar;17(3):330-9. doi: 10.1038/nm.2305.
Epigenetics is one of the most promising and expanding fields in the current biomedical research landscape. Since the inception of epigenetics in the 1940s, the discoveries regarding its implications in normal and disease biology have not stopped, compiling a vast amount of knowledge in the past decade. The field has moved from just one recognized marker, DNA methylation, to a variety of others, including a wide spectrum of histone modifications. From the methodological standpoint, the successful initial single gene candidate approaches have been complemented by the current comprehensive epigenomic approaches that allow the interrogation of genomes to search for translational applications in an unbiased manner. Most important, the discovery of mutations in the epigenetic machinery and the approval of the first epigenetic drugs for the treatment of subtypes of leukemias and lymphomas has been an eye-opener for many biomedical scientists and clinicians. Herein, we will summarize the progress in the field of cancer epigenetics research that has reached mainstream oncology in the development of new biomarkers of the disease and new pharmacological strategies.
表观遗传学是当前生物医学研究领域中最有前途和不断发展的领域之一。自 20 世纪 40 年代表观遗传学的出现以来，关于其在正常和疾病生物学中的意义的发现从未停止过，在过去十年中积累了大量的知识。该领域已经从仅一个公认的标志物（DNA 甲基化）发展到了多种其他标志物，包括广泛的组蛋白修饰。从方法学的角度来看，成功的初始单基因候选方法已经得到了当前全面的表观基因组学方法的补充，这些方法允许对基因组进行检测，以便以无偏倚的方式寻找转化应用。最重要的是，表观遗传学机制中的突变的发现以及首批用于治疗白血病和淋巴瘤亚型的表观遗传学药物的批准，让许多生物医学科学家和临床医生大开眼界。在此，我们将总结癌症表观遗传学研究领域的进展，这些进展在疾病的新生物标志物和新的药理学策略的发展方面已经进入了肿瘤学的主流。
