Abstract
Cancer is a disease that results from both genetic and epigenetic changes. In recent decades, a number of people have investigated the disparities in gene expression resulting from variable DNA methylation alteration and chromatin structure modification in response to the environment. Especially, colon cancer is a great model system for investigating the epigenetic mechanism for aberrant gene expression alteration. Ionizing radiation (IR) could affect a variety of processes within exposed cells and, in particular, cause changes in gene expression, disruption of cell cycle arrest, and apoptotic cell death. Even though there is growing evidence on the importance of epigenetics and biological processes induced by radiation exposure in various cancer types including colon cancer, specific epigenetic alterations induced by radiation at the molecular level are incompletely defined. This review focuses on discussing possible IR-mediated changes of DNA methylation and histone modification in cancer.
Highlights
Epigenetic alterations are heritable changes in the structure and function of the genome that occur without changes in the DNA sequence
It is well known that aberrant epigenetic mechanisms manifest in both global changes in chromatin packaging and in localized gene promoter changes that influence the transcription of genes involved in cancer development [2]
The understanding of the epigenetic mechanism in cancer is required for the development of epigenetic therapies related to critical biological aspect
Summary
Epigenetic alterations are heritable changes in the structure and function of the genome that occur without changes in the DNA sequence. In mammalian cells, these epigenetic changes consist primarily of DNA methylation and post-translational histone modifications. The central paradigm of classical radiation biology is based on a model that considers only the direct interaction of ionizing radiation (IR) with the genetic material in the nucleus. This interaction could have an effect on several biological aspects in IR-exposed cells. The point of view of the transgenerational nature of genomic instability suggests the possible involvement of epigenetic mechanisms
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