Abstract :
Molecular cancer research studies on epigenetic changes focus on areas such as DNA methylation, histone modification, miRNA and loss of imprinting. The epigenetic changes are related to molecular biological responses, such as: cellular differentiation, development, proliferation, apoptosis, tumour suppressor or genomic instability. Most of the molecular studies on oral squamous cell carcinomas emphasized that P16, p15, p14, p53, p73 are hypermethylated. Additionally, histone deacetylase modification showed significant relation in oral squamous cell carcinoma tissues, and provided great scope on policy making areas in drug targeted therapy. miRNA deregulation such as miR-137,193a,133a,222 are positively correlated with oral squamous cell carcinoma samples. The present article reviews the epigenetic changes and its role in cancer, specifically oral squamous cell carcinoma.
Keyword :
Epigenetics, DNA methylation, histone modification, miRNA, loss of imprinting.