Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Challenges and Opportunities in Social Epigenomics and Cancer

  • Protocol
  • First Online:
Cancer Epigenetics for Precision Medicine

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1856))

Abstract

Social epigenomics is an area of science that evaluates why and how different social factors and processes affect different components of the epigenome. As it happens with most of the new areas in science, social epigenetics being a relatively new area, only limited progress has been made. However, the potential of implicating social epigenomics in improving health and health related policies is tremendous. Epidemiologic studies evaluating social, behavior, family, and environmental factors have helped understand social inequality and develop the area of social epigenomics. Most of the information in social epidemiology has been gathered from genetic studies. Now the time has come that we may apply similar approaches in social epigenomics because technologies of determining methylation, histone, and noncoding RNA profiling are well developed. The focus of this chapter is to understand the role of epigenetic regulation in social experiences at various stages in life due to altered function of genes and affecting health in populations with different races/ethnicity. Here we discuss the current challenges and opportunities in the field.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Protocol
USD 49.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Abbreviations

DNMT:

DNA methyl transferase

ER:

Estrogen receptor

HAT:

Histone acetyl transferase

HDAC:

Histone deacetylase

PR:

Progesterone receptor

References

  1. Raghuraman S, Donkin I, Versteyhe S, Barres R, Simar D (2016) The emerging role of epigenetics in inflammation and immunometabolism. Trends Endocrinol Metab 27(11):782–795

    Google Scholar 

  2. Dabritz J, Menheniott TR (2014) Linking immunity, epigenetics, and cancer in inflammatory bowel disease. Inflamm Bowel Dis 20(9):1638–1654

    Google Scholar 

  3. Fernandez-Rhodes L, Gong J, Haessler J, Franceschini N, Graff M, Nishimura KK, Wang Y, Highland HM, Yoneyama S, Bush WS, Goodloe R, Ritchie MD, Crawford D, Gross M, Fornage M, Buzkova P, Tao R, Isasi C, Aviles-Santa L, Daviglus M, Mackey RH, Houston D, Gu CC, Ehret G Nguyen KH, Lewis CE, Leppert M, Irvin MR, Lim U, Haiman CA, Le Marchand L, Schumacher F, Wilkens L, Lu Y, Bottinger EP, Loos RJL, Sheu WH, Guo X, WJ L, Y H, Hung YJ, Absher D, Wu IC, Taylor KD, Lee IT, Liu Y, Wang TD, Quertermous T, Juang JJ, Rotter JI, Assimes T, Hsiung CA, Chen YI, Prentice R, Kuller LH, Manson JE, C K, Smokowski P, Robinson WR, Gordon-Larsen P, Li R, Hindorff L, Buyske S, Matise TC, Peters U, North KE (2017) Trans-ethnic fine-mapping of genetic loci for body mass index in the diverse ancestral populations of the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study reveals evidence for multiple signals at established loci. Hum Genet 136(6):771–800

    Google Scholar 

  4. Li W, Guo Y, Zhang C, Wu R, Yang AY, Gaspar J, Kong AN (2016) Dietary phytochemicals and cancer chemoprevention: a perspective on oxidative stress, inflammation, and epigenetics. Chem Res Toxicol 29(12):2071–2095

    Google Scholar 

  5. Li Y, Tollefsbol TO (2016) Age-related epigenetic drift and phenotypic plasticity loss: implications in prevention of age-related human diseases. Epigenomics 8(12):1637–1651

    Google Scholar 

  6. Tejeda S, Stolley MR, Vijayasiri G, Campbell RT, Ferrans CE, Warnecke RB, Rauscher GH (2017) Negative psychological consequences of breast cancer among recently diagnosed ethnically diverse women. Psychooncology. https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.4456

  7. Muhsen K, Green MS, Soskolne V, Neumark Y (2017) Inequalities in non-communicable diseases between the major population groups in Israel: achievements and challenges. Lancet 389(10088):2531–2541

    Google Scholar 

  8. Malta DC, Bernal RT, de Souza MF, Szwarcwald CL, Lima MG, Barros MB (2016) Social inequalities in the prevalence of self-reported chronic non-communicable diseases in Brazil: national health survey 2013. Int J Equity Health 15(1):153

    Google Scholar 

  9. Fang D, Gan H, Lee JH, Han J, Wang Z, Riester SM, Jin L, Chen J, Zhou H, Wang J, Zhang H, Yang N, Bradley EW, Ho TH, Rubin BP, Bridge JA, Thibodeau SN, Ordog T, Chen Y, van Wijnen AJ, Oliveira AM, Xu RM, Westendorf JJ, Zhang Z (2016) The histone H3.3K36M mutation reprograms the epigenome of chondroblastomas. Science 352(6291):1344–1348

    Google Scholar 

  10. Ropero S, Esteller M (2007) The role of histone deacetylases (HDACs) in human cancer. Mol Oncol 1(1):19–25

    Google Scholar 

  11. Salmanidis M, Pillman K, Goodall G, Bracken C (2014) Direct transcriptional regulation by nuclear microRNAs. Int J Biochem Cell Biol 54:304–311

    Google Scholar 

  12. Chitnis NS, Pytel D, Bobrovnikova-Marjon E, Pant D, Zheng H, Maas NL, Frederick B, Kushner JA, Chodosh LA, Koumenis C, Fuchs SY, Diehl JA (2012) miR-211 is a prosurvival microRNA that regulates chop expression in a PERK-dependent manner. Mol Cell 48(3):353–364

    Google Scholar 

  13. Hong CC, Chen PS, Chiou J, Chiu CF, Yang CY, Hsiao M, Chang YW, Yu YH, Hung MC, Hsu NW, Shiah SG, Hsu NY, Su JL (2014) miR326 maturation is crucial for VEGF-C-driven cortactin expression and esophageal cancer progression. Cancer Res 74(21):6280–6290

    Google Scholar 

  14. Wang W, Ren F, Wu Q, Jiang D, Li H, Shi H (2014) MicroRNA-497 suppresses angiogenesis by targeting vascular endothelial growth factor A through the PI3K/AKT and MAPK/ERK pathways in ovarian cancer. Oncol Rep 32(5):2127–2133

    Google Scholar 

  15. Xu J, Wang T, Cao Z, Huang H, Li J, Liu W, Liu S, You L, Zhou L, Zhang T, Zhao Y (2014) MiR-497 downregulation contributes to the malignancy of pancreatic cancer and associates with a poor prognosis. Oncotarget 5(16):6983–6993

    Google Scholar 

  16. King KE, Kane JB, Scarbrough P, Hoyo C, Murphy SK (2016) Neighborhood and family environment of expectant mothers may influence prenatal programming of adult cancer risk: discussion and an illustrative DNA methylation example. Biodemography Soc Biol 62(1):87–104

    Google Scholar 

  17. American Cancer Society (2017) Global facts and figures 2017. p 10. https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/annual-cancer-facts-and-figures/2017/cancer-facts-and-figures-2017.pdf

  18. Acharya S, Xu J, Wang X, Jain S, Wang H, Zhang Q, Chang CC, Bower J, Arun B, Seewaldt V, Yu D (2016) Downregulation of GLUT4 contributes to effective intervention of estrogen receptor-negative/HER2-overexpressing early stage breast disease progression by lapatinib. Am J Cancer Res 6(5):981–995

    Google Scholar 

  19. Dietze EC, Sistrunk C, Miranda-Carboni G, O'Regan R, Seewaldt VL (2015) Triple-negative breast cancer in African-American women: disparities versus biology. Nat Rev Cancer 15(4):248–254

    Google Scholar 

  20. Benevolenskaya EV, Islam AB, Ahsan H, Kibriya MG, Jasmine F, Wolff B, Al-Alem U, Wiley E, Kajdacsy-Balla A, Macias V, Rauscher GH (2016) DNA methylation and hormone receptor status in breast cancer. Clin Epigenetics 8:17

    Google Scholar 

  21. Song MA, Brasky TM, Marian C, Weng DY, Taslim C, Dumitrescu RG, Llanos AA, Freudenheim JL, Shields PG (2015) Racial differences in genome-wide methylation profiling and gene expression in breast tissues from healthy women. Epigenetics 10(12):1177–1187

    Google Scholar 

  22. Kamali P, Zettervall SL, Wu W, Ibrahim AM, Medin C, Rakhorst HA, Schermerhorn ML, Lee BT, Lin SJ (2017) Differences in the reporting of racial and socioeconomic disparities among three large national databases for breast reconstruction. Plast Reconstr Surg 139(4):795–807

    Google Scholar 

  23. Grontved L, Bandle R, John S, Baek S, Chung HJ, Liu Y, Aguilera G, Oberholtzer C, Hager GL, Levens D (2012) Rapid genome-scale mapping of chromatin accessibility in tissue. Epigenetics Chromatin 5(1):10

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to the program staff for reading the manuscript and providing suggestions to improve the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine and Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

    Krishna Banaudha

  2. Department of Pharmacology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Vineet Kumar

  3. Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, USA

    Mukesh Verma

Authors
  1. Krishna Banaudha
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Vineet Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mukesh Verma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Kelly Government Solutions, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Ramona G. Dumitrescu

  2. Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Mukesh Verma

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

About this protocol

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this protocol

Banaudha, K., Kumar, V., Verma, M. (2018). Challenges and Opportunities in Social Epigenomics and Cancer. In: Dumitrescu, R., Verma, M. (eds) Cancer Epigenetics for Precision Medicine . Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1856. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8751-1_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8751-1_13

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-8750-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-8751-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation