Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) methylation and its impact in generation of Cancer

Abstract

The arrangement of genes in the chromosome is dependent on histone modifications, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) binding proteins and methylation of cytosines within 51–cytosine-phosphate-Guanine–31 (CpG) dinucleotides. DNA methylation can modify the gene activity without changing the gene sequence. Aberrant hypomethylation and hypermethylations, causal or heritable gene expressions play an important role in tumour initiation and progression. Global hypomethylation at some part of genome and hypermethylation at the promoter regions of the tumour suppressor genes could generate mutations in several types of cancers. Reversal or inhibition of DNA methylation mechanism provides a promising improvement in the treatment of cancer along with chemotherapy. A combined approach utilising epigenetic treatment along with standard chemotherapy appears to hold promise as a future therapy.

Keywords

• Epigenetics
• Deoxyribonucleic acid methylation
• Methyl transferases
• Cancer