MicroRNA regulation of epigenetic modifiers in breast cancer

Brock Humphries, Zhishan Wang, Chengfeng Yang

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

52 Scopus citations

Abstract

Epigenetics refers to the heritable changes in gene expression without a change in the DNA sequence itself. Two of these major changes include aberrant DNA methylation as well as changes to histone modification patterns. Alterations to the epigenome can drive expression of oncogenes and suppression of tumor suppressors, resulting in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. In addition to modifications of the epigenome, microRNA (miRNA) dysregulation is also a hallmark for cancer initiation and metastasis. Advances in our understanding of cancer biology demonstrate that alterations in the epigenome are not only a major cause of miRNA dysregulation in cancer, but that miRNAs themselves also indirectly drive these DNA and histone modifications. More explicitly, recent work has shown that miRNAs can regulate chromatin structure and gene expression by directly targeting key enzymes involved in these processes. This review aims to summarize these research findings specifically in the context of breast cancer. This review also discusses miRNAs as epigenetic biomarkers and as therapeutics, and presents a comprehensive summary of currently validated epigenetic targets in breast cancer.

Original languageEnglish
Article number897
JournalCancers
Volume11
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors.

Keywords

  • Breast cancer
  • Epigenetics
  • MicroRNAs
  • Non-coding RNAs

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Oncology
  • Cancer Research

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