Histones and long non-coding RNAs: the new insights of epigenetic deregulation involved in oral cancer

Abstract

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a category of aggressive malignancies that represent clinically, molecularly, and etiologically heterogeneous tumors. The majority of OSCCs are associated with tobacco and alcohol use, acting both independently and synergistically, which suggests that the environment plays an important role in carcinogenesis; however, the mechanisms associated with the development of OSCC are not well understood. It has been proposed that the epigenetic components could be implicated in the initiation and progression of OSCC. Primarily, aberrant DNA methylation patterns have been widely addressed in the study of OSCC. Diverse studies have proposed that other epigenetic processes such as post-translational histone modification, the deposition of histone variants, histone chaperones, and recently non-coding RNA, can be also involved in the development of oral cancer. In this review we focus on describing the new insights of the epigenetics processes that are related with OSCC as histones variants and long non-coding RNAs.

Keywords: Epigenetics; Histones; Long non-coding RNA; Oral cancer.