DNA Methylation and Cancer Therapy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. DNA Methylation

   • Aharon Razin

   Pages 1-12

3. Epigenetic Mechanisms of Gene Regulation

   • Keith D. Robertson

   Pages 13-30

4. DNA Hypo- vs. Hypermethylation in Cancer

   • Melanie Ehrlich, Guanchao Jiang

   Pages 31-41

5. DNA Methylation in Urological Cancers

   • Wolfgang A. Schulz, Hans-Helge Seifert

   Pages 42-58

6. DNA Methylation in Colorectal Cancer

   • Jeremy R. Jass, Vicki L. J. Whitehall, Joanne Young, Barbara A. Leggett

   Pages 59-68

7. CpG Island Hypermethylation of Tumor Suppressor Genes in Human Cancer

   • Michel Herranz, Manel Esteller

   Pages 69-84

8. The Loss of Methyl Groups in DNA of Tumor Cells and Tissues

   • Alain Niveleau, Chandrika Piyathilake, Adriana de Capoa, Claudio Grappelli, Jean-Marc Dumollard, Lucien Frappart et al.

   Pages 85-106

9. Identifying Clinicopathological Association of DNA Hypermethylation in Cancers Using CpG Island Microarrays

   • Susan H. Wei, Timothy T. -C. Yip, Chuan-Mu Chen, Tim H. -M. Huang

   Pages 107-116

10. Methylation Analysis in Cancer

    • Carolina Haefliger, Sabine Maier, Alexander Olek

    Pages 117-124

11. Regulation of DNA Methyltransferases in Cancer

    • Nancy Detich, Moshe Szyf

    Pages 125-141

12. Inhibition of Poly(ADP-Ribosyl)ation Allows DNA Hypermethylation

    • Anna Reale, Giuseppe Zardo, Maria Malanga, Jordanka Zlatanova, Paola Caiafa

    Pages 142-155

13. The Role of Active Demethylation in Cancer and Its Therapeutic Potential

    • Moshe Szyf, Paul M. Campbell, Nancy Detich, Jing Ni Ou, Stefan Hamm, Veronica Bovenzi

    Pages 156-177

14. Purine Analogues and Their Role in Methylation and Cancer Chemotherapy

    • Katherine L. Seley, Sylvester L. Mosley

    Pages 178-186

15. DNA Methyltransferase Inhibitors

    • Gregory K. Reid, A. Robert MacLeod

    Pages 187-204

16. Preclinical and Clinical Studies on 5-Aza-2′-Deoxycytidine, a Potent Inhibitor of DNA Methylation, in Cancer Therapy

    • Richard L. Momparler

    Pages 205-217

17. Anticancer Gene Therapy by in Vivo DNA Electrotransfer of MBD2 Antisense

    • Pascal Bigey, Daniel Scherman

    Pages 218-229

18. Epilogue

    • Moshe Szyf

    Pages 230-233

19. Back Matter

    Pages 235-239

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NA methylation has bewildered molecular biologists since Hotchkiss discovered it almost six decades ago (Hotchkiss RDJ. Biol Cem 1948; 175:315-332). The fact that the chemical structure of our D genome consists of two components that are covalently bound, the genetic information that is replicated by the DNA replication machinery ana DNA methylation that is maintainea by independent enzymatic machinery, has redictably stimulated the imagination and curiosity of generations of mo­ Edular biologists. An obvious question was whether DNA methylation was a bearer of additional information to the genetic information and what was the nature of this information? It was tempting to speculate that DNA me­ thylation applied some form of control over programming of the genome s expression profile. Once techniques to probe the methylation profile of whole genomes as well as specific genes became available, it became clear that DNA methylation patterns are gene and tissue specific and that patterns of gene expression correlate with patterns of methylation. DNA methylation pat­ terns emerged as the only component of the chemical structure of DNA that exhibited tissue and cell specificity. This data seemingly provided an attrac­ tively simple explanation for the longstanding dilemma of how could one identical genome manifest itself in so many different forms in multicellular organisms? The DNA methylation pattern has thus become the only known factor to confer upon DNA a unique cellular identity.

• DNA
• Expression
• Microarray
• Purine
• enzymes
• gene expression
• gene therapy
• protein
• proteins
• transcription
• tumorigenesis

• Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

  Moshe Szyf

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