Department of Cytobiochemistry, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Lodz, 90-236 Lodz, Poland.
Oncol Rep. 2017 Nov;38(5):2587-2596. doi: 10.3892/or.2017.5972. Epub 2017 Sep 20.
Prostate cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in Poland after lung cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality after lung and colon cancer. The etiology of most cases of prostate cancer are not fully known, and therefore it is essential to search for the molecular basis of prostate cancer and markers for the early diagnosis of this type of cancer. Epigenetics deals with changes in gene expression that are not determined by changes in the DNA sequence. Epigenetic changes refer to changes in the structure of DNA, which are the result of DNA modification after replication and/or post-translational modification of proteins associated with DNA. In contrast to mutations, epigenetic changes are reversible and occur very rapidly. The major epigenetic mechanisms include DNA methylation, modification of histone proteins, chemical modification and chromatin remodeling changes in gene expression caused by microRNAs (miRNAs). Epigenetic changes play an important role in malignant transformation and can be specific to types of cancers including prostate cancer.
在波兰，前列腺癌是男性中仅次于肺癌的第二大常见癌症，也是肺癌和结肠癌之后导致癌症相关死亡的第三大主要原因。大多数前列腺癌病例的病因并不完全清楚，因此寻找前列腺癌的分子基础和用于早期诊断这种癌症的标志物至关重要。表观遗传学涉及基因表达的变化，而这些变化不是由 DNA 序列的变化决定的。表观遗传变化是指 DNA 结构的变化，这是复制后 DNA 修饰和/或与 DNA 相关的蛋白质的翻译后修饰的结果。与突变不同，表观遗传变化是可逆的，并且发生得非常迅速。主要的表观遗传机制包括 DNA 甲基化、组蛋白蛋白修饰、化学修饰以及 miRNA（微小 RNA）引起的染色质重塑变化导致的基因表达变化。表观遗传变化在恶性转化中起着重要作用，并且可以针对包括前列腺癌在内的特定类型的癌症具有特异性。
