Underexplored reciprocity between genome-wide methylation status and long non-coding RNA expression reflected in breast cancer research: potential impacts for the disease management in the framework of 3P medicine

AbstractBreast cancer (BC) is the most common female malignancy reaching a pandemic scale worldwide. A comprehensive interplay between genetic alterations and shifted epigenetic regions synergistically leads to disease development and progression into metastatic BC. DNA and histones methylations, as the most studied epigenetic modifications, represent frequent and early events in the process of carcinogenesis. To this end, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are recognized as potent epigenetic modulators in pathomechanisms of BC by contributing to the regulation of DNA, RNA, and histones ’ methylation. In turn, the methylation status of DNA, RNA, and histones can affect the level of lncRNAs expression demonstrating the reciprocity of mechanisms involved. Furthermore, lncRNAs might undergo methylation in response to actual medical conditions such as tumor development and treated ma lignancies. The reciprocity between genome-wide methylation status and long non-coding RNA expression levels in BC remains largely unexplored. Since the bio/medical research in the area is, per evidence, strongly fragmented, the relevance of this reciprocity for BC development and progression has no t yet been systematically analyzed. Contextually, the article aims at:consolidating the accumulated knowledge on both —the genome-wide methylation status and corresponding lncRNA expression patterns in BC andhighlighting the potential benefits of this consolidated multi-professional approach for advanced ...

Source: EPMA Journal - May 22, 2023 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research