Genome hypomethylation and activation of germline-specific genes in tumors
(2010) Epigenetics Europe — Location: Dublin, Ireland (14.September.2010)
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- Abstract
- DNA methylation patterns, which remain generally stable in the adult, become profoundly altered in most human tumors. While discrete DNA segments become hypermethylated in cancer cells, many more sequences become hypomethylated. Among these are several germline-specific genes, which become aberrantly activated in a wide variety of human cancers and encode tumor-specific antigens. These genes, referred to as “cancer-germline” (CG) genes, offer the opportunity to interrogate several aspects of the process of DNA demethylation in cancer. Evidence suggests that methylation losses at CG genes are not random, but rather evolve into specific patterns that vary according to the histological origin of the tumor. It is proposed that such hypomethylation patterns result from a historical event of transient DNA demethylation, and from the presence of transcriptional regulators that induce local changes in histone modifications and determine thereby which regions escape DNA remethylation.
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Loriot, A., Parvizi Nejad, K., & De Smet, C. (2010). Genome hypomethylation and activation of germline-specific genes in tumors. Epigenetics Europe, Dublin, Ireland. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/82697