Epigenetic changes in cancer

 

In ageing and cancer, genetic and epigenetic changes in DNA lead to altered gene expression. Epigenetic alterations such as DNA methylation, histone modifications, microRNAs, and nucleosome remodelling all influence gene expression in human malignancies.

All human malignancies have epigenetic changes, which are now recognised to work together with genetic abnormalities to cause the cancer phenotype. DNA methylation, histone modifiers and readers, chromatin remodelers, microRNAs, and other chromatin components are all involved in these modifications.

Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviour and environment can influence how your genes function. Epigenetic alterations, unlike genetic changes, are reversible and do not alter your DNA sequence; nevertheless, they can alter how your body interprets a DNA sequence.

Thus, epigenetic abnormalities in DNA repair may play a role in the high frequency of mutations found in cancer genomes, as well as their carcinogenic development. Cancers have a lot of genomic instability, which is linked to a lot of mutations. Epigenetic processes can be disrupted, resulting in altered gene function and malignant cellular change. Cancer is characterised by changes in the epigenetic landscape on a global scale.

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