Histone methyltransferase and drug resistance in cancers

Abstract A number of novel anticancer drugs have been developed in recent years. However, the mortality of cancer patients remains high because of the emergence of drug resistance. It was reported that drug resistance might involved in changes in gene expression without changing genotypes, which is...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Cheng Yang, Jiayu Zhang, Yukui Ma, Chunfu Wu, Wei Cui, Lihui Wang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2020-08-01
Series:Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research
Subjects:
Online Access:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13046-020-01682-z
Description
Summary:Abstract A number of novel anticancer drugs have been developed in recent years. However, the mortality of cancer patients remains high because of the emergence of drug resistance. It was reported that drug resistance might involved in changes in gene expression without changing genotypes, which is similar to epigenetic modification. Some studies indicated that targeting histone methyltransferase can reverse drug resistance. Hence, the use of histone methyltransferase inhibitors or histone demethylase inhibitors opens new therapeutic approaches for cancer treatment. While the relationship between histone methyltransferase and tumor resistance has been determined, there is a lack of updated review on the association between them. In this review, we summarized the mechanisms of histone methyltransferases in cancer drug resistance and the therapeutic strategies of targeting histone methyltransferase to reverse drug resistance.
ISSN:1756-9966