Search results for "Epigenetics"
showing 10 items of 517 documents
Patterns of genomic instability in gastric cancer: clinical implications and perspectives
2007
In gastric cancer (GC) the loss of genomic stability represents a key molecular step that occurs early in the carcinogenesis process and creates a permissive environment for the accumulation of genetic and epigenetic alterations in tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes. It is widely accepted that GC can follow at least two major genomic instability pathways, microsatellite instability (MSI) and chromosome instability (CIN). MSI is responsible for a well-defined subset of GCs. CIN represents a more common pathway comprising heterogeneous subsets of GC. In addition to MSI and CIN, the CpG islands methylator phenotype (CIMP) plays an important role in gastric carcinogenesis. CIMP may lead to th…
Histone Code and Higher-Order Chromatin Folding: A Hypothesis
2016
AbstractHistone modifications alone or in combination are thought to modulate chromatin structure and function; a concept termed histone code. By combining evidence from several studies, we investigated if the histone code can play a role in higher-order folding of chromatin. Firstly using genomic data, we analyzed associations between histone modifications at the nucleosome level. We could dissect the composition of individual nucleosomes into five predicted clusters of histone modifications. Secondly, by assembling the raw reads of histone modifications at various length scales, we noticed that the histone mark relationships that exist at nucleosome level tend to be maintained at the high…
Epigenetics As The Driving Force In Long-Term Immunosuppression
2016
Epigenetics is an emerging frontier of biology, with the potential for deciphering the intricate molecular and transcriptional cellular programs, therefore contributing to explain the pathological evolution of sepsis, one of the most elusive syndromes in medicine. The evolution of sepsis depends not only on the pathogen which originated the infection but also on the genetic and epigenetic background of the host. Short-term mortality of sepsis and septic shock is high, being considered a public health concern worldwide. Immunosuppression is the predominant driving force for morbidity and mortality in late deaths and long-term deaths of survivors from a sepsis episode. In this regard, apoptos…
Physical Activity and Nutrition INfluences in Ageing: Current Findings from the PANINI Project
2019
Background: The ageing of the population is a global challenge and the period of life spent in good health, although increasing, is not keeping pace with lifespan. Consequently, understanding the important factors that contribute to healthy ageing and validating interventions and influencing policy to promote healthy ageing are vital research priorities.Method: The PANINI project is a collaboration of 20 partners across Europe examining the influence of physical activity and nutrition in ageing. Methods utilised encompass the biological to the social, from genetics to the influence of social context. For example, epigenetic, immunological, and psychological assessments, and nutritional and …
Intestinal Microbiota and Celiac Disease: Cause, Consequence or Co-Evolution?
2015
It is widely recognized that the intestinal microbiota plays a role in the initiation and perpetuation of intestinal inflammation in numerous chronic conditions. Most studies report intestinal dysbiosis in celiac disease (CD) patients, untreated and treated with a gluten-free diet (GFD), compared to healthy controls. CD patients with gastrointestinal symptoms are also known to have a different microbiota compared to patients with dermatitis herpetiformis and controls, suggesting that the microbiota is involved in disease manifestation. Furthermore, a dysbiotic microbiota seems to be associated with persistent gastrointestinal symptoms in treated CD patients, suggesting its pathogenic implic…
Rapid adaptation of signaling networks in the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae
2019
Abstract Background One fundamental question in biology is how the evolution of eukaryotic signaling networks has taken place. “Loss of function” (lof) mutants from components of the high osmolarity glycerol (HOG) signaling pathway in the filamentous fungus Magnaporthe oryzae are viable, but impaired in osmoregulation. Results After long-term cultivation upon high osmolarity, stable individuals with reestablished osmoregulation capacity arise independently from each of the mutants with inactivated HOG pathway. This phenomenon is extremely reproducible and occurs only in osmosensitive mutants related to the HOG pathway – not in other osmosensitive Magnaporthe mutants. The major compatible so…
Gene silencing induced by oxidative DNA base damage: association with local decrease of histone H4 acetylation in the promoter region
2010
Oxidized DNA bases, particularly 7,8-dihydro-8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG), are endogenously generated in cells, being a cause of carcinogenic mutations and possibly interfering with gene expression. We found that expression of an oxidatively damaged plasmid DNA is impaired after delivery into human host cells not only due to decreased retention in the transfected cells, but also due to selective silencing of the damaged reporter gene. To test whether the gene silencing was associated with a specific change of the chromatin structure, we determined the levels of histone modifications related to transcriptional activation (acetylated histones H3 and H4) or repression (methylated K9 and K27 of the hi…
TAF-ChIP: an ultra-low input approach for genome-wide chromatin immunoprecipitation assay
2019
The authors present a novel method for obtaining chromatin profiles from low cell numbers without prior nuclei isolation. The method is successfully implemented in generating epigenetic profile from 100 cells with high signal-to-noise ratio.
Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors in the Treatment of Hematological Malignancies and Solid Tumors
2010
The human genome is epigenetically organized through a series of modifications to the histone proteins that interact with the DNA. In cancer, many of the proteins that regulate these modifications can be altered in both function and expression. One example of this is the family of histone deacetylases (HDACs), which as their name implies remove acetyl groups from the histone proteins, allowing for more condensed nucleosomal structure. HDACs have increased expression in cancer and are also believed to promote carcinogenesis through the acetylation and interaction with key transcriptional regulators. Given this, small molecule histone deacetylases inhibitors have been identified and developed…
Work-Related Stress, Physio-Pathological Mechanisms, and the Influence of Environmental Genetic Factors
2019
Work-related stress is a growing health problem in modern society. The stress response is characterized by numerous neurochemicals, neuroendocrine and immune modifications that involve various neurological systems and circuits, and regulation of the gene expression of the different receptors. In this regard, a lot of research has focused the attention on the role played by the environment in influencing gene expression, which in turn can control the stress response. In particular, genetic factors can moderate the sensitivities of specific types of neural cells or circuits mediating the imprinting of the environment on different biological systems. In this current review, we wish to analyze …