title: Writing and rewriting the epigenetic code of cancer cells: from engineered proteins to small molecules.
abstract: The epigenomic era has revealed a well-connected network of molecular processes that shape the chromatin landscape. These processes comprise abnormal methylomes, transcriptosomes, genome-wide histone post-transcriptional modifications patterns, histone variants, and noncoding RNAs. The mapping of these processes in large scale by chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing and other methodologies in both cancer and normal cells reveals novel therapeutic opportunities for anticancer intervention. The goal of this minireview is to summarize pharmacological strategies to modify the epigenetic landscape of cancer cells. These approaches include the use of novel small molecule inhibitors of epigenetic processes specifically deregulated in cancer cells and the design of engineered proteins able to stably reprogram the epigenetic code in cancer cells in a way that is similar to normal cells.
authors.affiliation: School of Anatomy, Physiology, and Human Biology, M309, the University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, 6009, WA, Australia. pilar.blancafort@uwa.edu.au
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Blancafort
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frye
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D057890:Epigenomics / Q000379:methods*; D005815:Genetic Code; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics*; D015202:Protein Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054852:Small Molecule Libraries / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D054852:Small Molecule Libraries