Epigenetics has emerged recently as an important area of molecular biological studies. Epigenetic modifications lead to potentially heritable but reversible alterations in the expression of genes that determine cell fate. Epigenetic misregulation is thus often linked to degenerative diseases, cancer and neuronal disorders. Recent biomedical interest in this regulatory system stems from the fact that epigenetic, in contrast to genetic, alterations are in principle amenable to pharmacological intervention. A few epigenetically active drugs, for example histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) and DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) inhibitors, have been approved by FDA for treatment of cancers such as CTCL, MDS, and AML. This volume explores the scientific background for clinical applications of epigenetically active drugs. Included are descriptions of epigenetic controls over gene expression, the post-transcriptional silencing of genes by RNA interference (RNAi) and microRNAs, as well as new findings from stem cell research which are relevant to pharmacological applications.
Indice testuale
1 DNA Methylation and Cancer Phillippa C. Taberlay and Peter A. Jones 2 Genome-wide Epigenetic Modifications in Cancer Yoon Jung Park, Rainer Claus, Dieter Weichenhan and Christoph Plass 3 DNA Repair and the Control of DNA Methylation Primo Schar and Olivier Fritsch 4 Errors in Erasure: Links Between Histone lysine Methylation Removal and Disease Elizabeth M. Duncan and C. David Allis 5 Histone Modifications in Cancer Biology and Prognosis Siavash K. Kurdistani 6 Dynamics of Histone Lysine Methylation: Structures of Methyl Writers and Eraser Anup K. Upadhyay and Xiaodong Cheng 7 Epigenetic Mechanisms of Mental Retardation Anne Schaefer, Alexander Tarakhovsky and Paul Greengard 8 Histone and DNA Modifications in Mental Retardation Shigeki Iwase and Yang Shi 9 HDAC Inhibitors and Cancer Therapy Peter W. Atadja 10 Epigenetic Mechanisms in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Antoine H.F.M. Peters and Juerg Schwaller 11 The Liver-Specific MicroRNA miR-122: Biology and Therapeutic Potential Witold Filipowicz and Helge Grosshans 12 Transcriptional Regulatory Networks in Embryonic Stem Cells Yun Shen Chan, Lin Yang, Huck-Hui Ng 13 Small Molecules in Cellular Reprogramming and Differentiation Xu Yuan, Wenlin Li and Sheng Ding
