title: The role of enhancers in cancer.
abstract: Enhancer elements function as the logic gates of the genetic regulatory circuitry. One of their most important functions is the integration of extracellular signals with intracellular cell fate information to generate cell type-specific transcriptional responses. Mutations occurring in cancer often misregulate enhancers that normally control the signal-dependent expression of growth-related genes. This misregulation can result from trans-acting mechanisms, such as activation of the transcription factors or epigenetic regulators that control enhancer activity, or can be caused in cis by direct mutations that alter the activity of the enhancer or its target gene specificity. These processes can generate tumour type-specific super-enhancers and establish a 'locked' gene regulatory state that drives the uncontrolled proliferation of cancer cells. Here, we review the role of enhancers in cancer, and their potential as therapeutic targets.
authors.affiliation: Division of Functional Genomics and Systems Biology, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm SE-171 77, Sweden.
authors.forename: Inderpreet
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sur
authors.affiliation: Division of Functional Genomics and Systems Biology, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm SE-171 77, Sweden.|Genome-Scale Biology Program, University of Helsinki, Biomedicum, PO Box 63, Helsinki 00014, Finland.
authors.forename: Jussi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Taipale
mesh_terms: D004742:Enhancer Elements, Genetic; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology