Abstract
A large number of studies have revealed that epigenetics plays an important role in cancer development. However, the currently-developed epigenetic drugs cannot achieve a stable curative effect. Thus, it may be necessary to redefine the role of epigenetics in cancer development. It has been shown that embryonic development and tumor development share significant similarities in terms of biological behavior and molecular expression patterns, and epigenetics may be the link between them. Cell differentiation is likely a manifestation of epigenetic homeostasis at the cellular level. In this article, we introduced the importance of epigenetic homeostasis in cancer development and analyzed the shortcomings of current epigenetic treatment regimens. Understanding the dynamic process of epigenetic homeostasis in organ development can help us characterize cancer according to its differentiation stages, explore new targets for cancer treatment, and improve the clinical prognosis of patients with cancer.
Highlights
As a common disease in multicellular organisms, cancer has always been the focus of scientific research, especially in its pathogenesis [1,2,3,4]
We will refer to existing research to analyze the shortcomings of current epigenetic treatment regimens and review our view: Epigenetic homeostasis refers to the fact that various epigenetic regulatory substances in cells change only in a small range under normal physiological conditions to jointly maintain cell differentiation
To characterize epigenetic stage changes, we introduced the concept of differentiation locks and classified differentiation locks into standard differentiation locks (SDLs), epistatic differentiation locks (EDLs) and hypostatic differentiation locks (HDLs) according to the stage cells are in. (Figure 1)
Summary
As a common disease in multicellular organisms, cancer has always been the focus of scientific research, especially in its pathogenesis [1,2,3,4]. An increasing number of studies have revealed that epigenetics plays an important role in cancer development. While explaining the important role of epigenetic homeostasis in multicellular organism, the term ‘differentiation lock’ will be used to refer to the composition of epigenetics in cell differentiation. Several studies have revealed that epigenetics plays an important role in the development of cancer and drug resistance [5], which has stimulated the enthusiasm of researchers (Table 1). Studies have shown that abnormal expression of histone codes is an important feature of cancer tissues and is related to the heterogeneity of cancer cells [31, 32]. Abnormally high methylation of cytosines in promoter CpG islands, as well as overall gene hypomethylation, lead to genome-wide instability and altered gene expression profiles, including silencing of oncogenes, activation of endogenous retroviruses, and upregulation of tumor antigens and oncogene expression [46, 47]. Tumorspecific methylated genes can be detected in circulating tumor cells, blood, urine, and other body fluids and are commonly used in the diagnosis and prognosis of early-stage tumors [48, 49]
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