DNA methylation, histone modifications, and signal transduction pathways: a close relationship in malignant gliomas pathophysiology

Abstract

Gliomas are the most common type of primary brain tumor. Although tremendous progress has been achieved in the recent years in the diagnosis and treatment, its molecular etiology remains unknown. In this regard, epigenetics represents a new approach to study the mechanisms that control gene expression and function without changing the sequence of the genome. In the present paper we describe the main findings about the alterations of cell signaling pathways in the most aggressive glioma in the adult population, namely, glioblastoma, in which epigenetic mechanisms and the emerging role of cancer stem cell play a crucial function in the development of new biomarkers for its detection and prognosis and the corresponding development of new pharmacological strategies.

Figure 1

Summary of the changes in the DNA methylation at the repetitive sequences and CpG island associated with GBM.

Figure 2

Summary of the alterations in the histone modifiers genes associated with gene expression deregulation in GBM. Ac (acetylation); me (methylation).