Functional Validation of the Putative Oncogenic Activity of .

Plasminogen activator, urokinase () is involved in cell migration, proliferation and tissue remodeling. upregulation is associated with an increase in aggressiveness, metastasis, and invasion of several cancer types, including breast cancer. In patients, this translates into decreased sensitivity to hormonal treatment, and poor prognosis.

Gene-Targeted DNA Methylation: Towards Long-Lasting Reprogramming of Gene Expression?

DNA methylation is an essential epigenetic mark, strongly associated with gene expression regulation. Aberrant DNA methylation patterns underlie various diseases and efforts to intervene with DNA methylation signatures are of great clinical interest. Technological developments to target writers or erasers of DNA methylation to specific genomic loci by epigenetic editing resulted in successful gene expression modulation, also in in vivo models.

KRAB-Induced Heterochromatin Effectively Silences Gene Expression in Somatic Cells and is Resilient to TGFβ1 Activation.

Epigenetic editing, an emerging technique used for the modulation of gene expression in mammalian cells, is a promising strategy to correct disease-related gene expression. Although epigenetic reprogramming results in sustained transcriptional modulation in several in vivo models, further studies are needed to develop this approach into a straightforward technology for effective and specific interventions. Important goals of current research efforts are understanding the context-dependency of successful epigenetic editing and finding the most effective epigenetic effector(s) for specific tasks.

Targeted epigenetic editing of SPDEF reduces mucus production in lung epithelial cells.

Airway mucus hypersecretion contributes to the morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic inflammatory lung diseases. Reducing mucus production is crucial for improving patients' quality of life. The transcription factor SAM-pointed domain-containing Ets-like factor () plays a critical role in the regulation of mucus production and, therefore, represents a potential therapeutic target.

Rewriting DNA Methylation Signatures at Will: The Curable Genome Within Reach?

Epigenetic regulation of gene expression is vital for the maintenance of genome integrity and cell phenotype. In addition, many different diseases have underlying epigenetic mutations, and understanding their role and function may unravel new insights for diagnosis, treatment, and even prevention of diseases. It was an important breakthrough when epigenetic alterations could be gene-specifically manipulated using epigenetic regulatory proteins in an approach termed epigenetic editing.