engleski

Epigenomics in Croatia - where do we stand?

The field of epigenomics has been officially introduced in Croatia in 2008, through establishment of Laboratory of Epigenomics (LE), at the Rudjer Boskovic Institute. While several research groups in Zagreb and Rijeka implement the approach related to epigenome in their research, the effort is mostly focused on exploring the methylome in cancer (especially as a valid link between inflammatory process and cancer) and in hereditary disease, particularly S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase (AHCY) deficiency. The LE members (one senior research associate, two research associates, one young PhD scientist, one PhD research assistant and, from very recently, one technition) perform their research in the field of cancer both, in vitro and in vivo. Currently, the Laboratory is funded through the National Grant (PI: Dr. Gall Troselj) only. The major focus of the group is: a) in vitro: treating different cancer cell lines with six different treatments that influence known basic biochemical mechanisms (e.g. 5-aza ; methylation processes ; PJ-34 and 3-AB: poly-ADP-ribosylation). Additional treatments include epigenome modifiers, yet not fully profiled as a specific modifiers of very certain cellular processes: curcumin, resveratrol and sirtinol. The potential consequences of their action on selected genes (IGF2, H19, CTCF, BORIS) is followed at the level of DNA, mRNA (quantitatively: qRT-PCR and qualitatively: RT-PCR with different primer combinations if splice variants are expected), proteins and protein/DNA interactions. In certain situations, the results obtained on this model generate and point out a specific process that may influence the biologic properties of the native cancer. Accordingly, in extenso work based on these preliminaries, translate on head and neck tumors (mostly laryngeal cancer). The collected samples are part of the Croatian Tumor Tissue Bank. Some recent data will be presented at the meeting.

epigenomics; cancer

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