Disease Relevance
Abnormal expression or activity of methylation-regulating enzymes has been noted in some types of human cancers, suggesting associations between histone methylation and malignant transformation of cells or formation of tumors. In recent years, epigenetic modification of the histone proteins, especially the methylation of the histone H3, in cancer development has been an area of emerging research. It is now generally accepted that in addition to genetic aberrations, cancer can be initiated by epigenetic changes in which gene expression is altered without genomic abnormalities. These epigenetic changes include loss or gain of methylations in both DNA and histone proteins.
There is not yet compelling evidence that suggests cancers develop purely by abnormalities in histone methylation or its signaling pathways, however they may be a contributing factor. For example, down-regulation of methylation of lysine 9 on histone 3 (H3K9me3) has been observed in several types of human cancer (such as colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, and lung cancer), which arise from either the deficiency of H3K9 methyltransferases or elevated activity or expression of H3K9 demethylases.
Read more about this topic: Histone Methyltransferase
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