Epigenetics and Disease

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. DNA Methylation and Cancer

   • Phillippa C. Taberlay, Peter A. Jones

   Pages 1-23

3. Genome-Wide Epigenetic Modifications in Cancer

   • Yoon Jung Park, Rainer Claus, Dieter Weichenhan, Christoph Plass

   Pages 25-49

4. DNA Repair and the Control of DNA Methylation

   • Primo Schär, Olivier Fritsch

   Pages 51-68

5. Errors in Erasure: Links Between Histone Lysine Methylation Removal and Disease

   • Elizabeth M. Duncan, C. David Allis

   Pages 69-90

6. Histone Modifications in Cancer Biology and Prognosis

   • Siavash K. Kurdistani

   Pages 91-106

7. Dynamics of Histone Lysine Methylation: Structures of Methyl Writers and Erasers

   • Anup K. Upadhyay, Xiaodong Cheng

   Pages 107-124

8. Epigenetic Mechanisms of Mental Retardation

   • Anne Schaefer, Alexander Tarakhovsky, Paul Greengard

   Pages 125-146

9. Histone and DNA Modifications in Mental Retardation

   • Shigeki Iwase, Yang Shi

   Pages 147-173

10. HDAC Inhibitors and Cancer Therapy

    • Peter W. Atadja

    Pages 175-195

11. Epigenetic Mechanisms in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

    • Antoine H. F. M. Peters, Juerg Schwaller

    Pages 197-219

12. The Liver-Specific MicroRNA miR-122: Biology and Therapeutic Potential

    • Witold Filipowicz, Helge Großhans

    Pages 221-238

13. Transcriptional Regulatory Networks in Embryonic Stem Cells

    • Yun Shen Chan, Lin Yang, Huck-Hui Ng

    Pages 239-252

14. Small Molecules in Cellular Reprogramming and Differentiation

    • Xu Yuan, Wenlin Li, Sheng Ding

    Pages 253-266

15. Back Matter

    Pages 267-270

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Epigenetics has emerged recently as an important area of molecular biological studies. Epigenetic modifications lead to potentially heritable but reversible alterations in the expression of genes that determine cell fate. Epigenetic misregulation is thus often linked to degenerative diseases, cancer and neuronal disorders. Recent biomedical interest in this regulatory system stems from the fact that epigenetic, in contrast to genetic, alterations are in principle amenable to pharmacological intervention. A few epigenetically active drugs, for example histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) and DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) inhibitors, have been approved by FDA for treatment of cancers such as CTCL, MDS, and AML. This volume explores the scientific background for clinical applications of epigenetically active drugs. Included are descriptions of epigenetic controls over gene expression, the post-transcriptional silencing of genes by RNA interference (RNAi) and microRNAs, as well as new findings from stem cell research which are relevant to pharmacological applications.

• DNA methylation
• cancer
• neuronal disorders
• stem cells
• therapy

• for Biomedical Research, Part of the Novartis Research Foundation, Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, Switzerland

  Susan M. Gasser

• BioMedical Research Co., Ltd., China Novartis Institutes for, Shanghai, China, People's Republic

  En Li

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