The Advances in Epigenetics for Cancer Radiotherapy

Abstract

Cancer is an important factor threatening human life and health; in recent years, its morbidity and mortality remain high and demosntrate an upward trend. It is of great significance to study its pathogenesis and targeted therapy. As the complex mechanisms of epigenetic modification has been increasingly discovered, they are more closely related to the occurrence and development of cancer. As a reversible response, epigenetic modification is of great significance for the improvement of classical therapeutic measures and the discovery of new therapeutic targets. It has become a research focusto explore the multi-level mechanisms of RNA, DNA31, chromatin and proteins. As an important means of cancer treatment, radiotherapy has made great progress in technology, methods, means and targeted sensitization after years of rapid development, and even research on radiotherapy based on epigenetic modification is rampant. A series of epigenetic effects of radiation on DNA methylation, histone modification, chromosome remodeling, RNA modification and non-coding RNA during radiotherapy affects therapeutic effects and prognosis. Starting from the epigenetic mechanism of tumorigenesis, this paper reviews the latest progress in the mechanism of interaction between epigenetic modification and cancer radiotherapy and briefly introduces the main types, mechanisms and applications of epigenetic modifiers used for radiotherapy sensitization in order to explore a more individual and dynamic approach of cancer treatment based on epigenetic mechanism. This study strives to make a modest contribution to the progress of human disease research.

Remodeling tumor microenvironment with natural products to overcome drug resistance

“…Misregulation of multiple comb proteins in distinct cancers leads to different results, while pan-cancer analyses indicate that epigenetic factors seem to be the primary contributor to tumorigenesis ( 62 ). As we all known, epigenetic modifications primarily occur in DNA and histone proteins, but there is a growing awareness that epigenetically modified non-coding RNAs may be the target of new therapeutic pathways for cancer ( 63 , 64 ). Non-coding RNAs play an essential part in the control of epigenetic mechanisms, such as long non-coding RNAs, microRNAs and piwi-interacting RNAs ( 63 ).…”

Radiation induced therapeutic effects in cancerous and tumor cells: A review

“…7 But it imposes a series of epigenetic effects like DNA methylation, histone modification, chromosome remodelling, RNA modification mainly non-coding RNA. 8 Ionizing radiation (IR) promotes cancer cell death through the creation of cytotoxic DNA lesions, including single strand breaks, base damage, cross links, and double strand breaks. 9 It causes direct induction of DNA damage and its cellular consequences.…”

Radio-lncRNAs: Biological Function and Potential Use as Biomarkers for Personalized Oncology

“…Radiogenomics is “the study of genomic changes that underlie the radioresponse of normal and tumor tissues” and is likely to enable a breakthrough in personalized radiotherapy [ 3 ]. It should be emphasized that the radiogenomic research conducted so far has focused on mRNA transcripts, protein-coding genes, and epigenetic elements—miRNAs [ 1 , 4 , 5 ]. However, the epigenome is constructed by many different types of RNA molecules, which interact and together create complex networks consisting of mRNAs, miRNAs, and other non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) [ 6 , 7 ].…”