Molecular Pathways in Growth and Survival: Epigenomics

Epigenetics refers to those heritable changes in gene expression that are not induced by DNA sequence aberrations. One of the most well-defined epigenetic markers is histone acetylation which has been shown to be deregulated in clonal disorders, including both solid tumors and B-cell malignancies, such as Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia (WM). Importantly, recent evidences have suggested that WM cells present with an aberrant histone acetylation status, and this may be due to deregulated microRNA profiling within the WM tumor clone, thus providing the preclinical support for using miRNA-based therapies in this disease.