Immunological effects of epigenetic modifiers

Lucillia Bezu, Alejandra Wu Chuang, Peng Liu, Guido Kroemer, Oliver Kepp

    Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

    18 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Epigenetic alterations are associated with major pathologies including cancer. Epigenetic dysregulation, such as aberrant histone acetylation, altered DNA methylation, or modified chromatin organization, contribute to oncogenesis by inactivating tumor suppressor genes and activating oncogenic pathways. Targeting epigenetic cancer hallmarks can be harnessed as an immunotherapeutic strategy, exemplified by the use of pharmacological inhibitors of DNA methyltransferases (DNMT) and histone deacetylases (HDAC) that can result in the release from the tumor of danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) on one hand and can (re-)activate the expression of tumor-associated antigens on the other hand. This finding suggests that epigenetic modifiers and more specifically the DNA methylation status may change the interaction of chromatin with chaperon proteins including HMGB1, thereby contributing to the antitumor immune response. In this review, we detail how epigenetic modifiers can be used for stimulating therapeutically relevant anticancer immunity when used as stand-alone treatments or in combination with established immunotherapies.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number1911
    JournalCancers
    Volume11
    Issue number12
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2019

    Keywords

    • Cancer
    • Epigenetic modifiers
    • Immunogenicity

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