Hematology Department, Papageorgiou Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Curr Med Chem. 2011;18(12):1757-64. doi: 10.2174/092986711795496791.
Epigenetic modifications, which are heritable changes in gene expression not involving DNA sequence alterations, are important early events in the multi -step process of tumorigenesis. Among them, DNA methylation and histone acetylation are the most extensively studied. Although they are, by definition, somatically heritable, epigenetic modifications of DNA and histones are also reversible. This characteristic difference from genetic alterations makes them interesting targets for therapeutic intervention. The huge amount of knowledge gathered in the field of epigenetics the last decade, was followed by the development of novel therapies: old drugs finding new identity and new targets and an increasing list of novel compounds for the treatment of malignant diseases. Hematological malignancies offer a broad spectrum of diseases where epigenetic therapies are shown to be active, providing encouraging results. Some of the more recent reports on this field of therapeutic interventions are reviewed below.
表观遗传修饰是一种可遗传的基因表达改变，不涉及 DNA 序列改变，是肿瘤发生的多步骤过程中的重要早期事件。其中，DNA 甲基化和组蛋白乙酰化是研究最广泛的两种。尽管它们从定义上讲是体细胞可遗传的，但 DNA 和组蛋白的表观遗传修饰也是可逆的。这种与遗传改变的特征差异使它们成为治疗干预的有趣靶点。过去十年中，在表观遗传学领域积累了大量的知识，随后开发了新的治疗方法：旧药物找到了新的身份和新的靶点，越来越多的新型化合物被用于治疗恶性疾病。血液系统恶性肿瘤提供了广泛的疾病谱，其中表观遗传学治疗已被证明是有效的，提供了令人鼓舞的结果。下面回顾了该治疗干预领域的一些最新报告。
