Edited by: Professor Lucia Altucci & Professor Marianne Rots
The last decade has seen a growing awareness of epigenetic deregulations underlying cancer and many other diseases. This awareness is paralleled by intensive research activities to identify inhibitors for epigenetic writers and erasers (and even readers) associated with such epigenetic dysregulations. In this review series, we provide insights into the current status of the early epigenetic drugs, while also addressing upcoming new classes of drugs.
All new therapeutic targets face challenges when tested in biological systems, but for epigenetic enzymes this is even more complex. Altogether, various aspects of genome-wide acting epigenetic enzyme modulators require more in depth investigations to fully fulfil the promise of clinically reversing epigenetic mutations. Despite such awareness, the current epi-drug era has opened novel therapeutic avenues for various diseases beyond cancer.
The work in this series was supported by the COST action CM1406- Epigenetic Chemical Biology.
Collection published: 23 May 2016