ABSTRACT

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a tumor with a relative low incidence, where a large part of his carcinogenesis involves epigenetics factors that keeps his heterogeneity and in sometimes are a therapeutic target or an obstacle to the effectiveness in the newest treatments. This review summarizes the principal epigenetic dysregulation mechanisms involved in the MPM pathogeny such as hypermethylation mediated by DNA methyltransferases (DNMT) in different tumor suppressor genes, and the relation with asbestos fibers exposure that is the main risk factor. His genesis is related with chronic inflammation mediated by free radicals that produces chromosomal alterations, genomic instability and more expression of angiogenesis and tumor invasion factors like EGFR, FGFR, TGF-B and PDGF. We also describe the independent methylation pathways that produce gene silencing such as Polycomb complex and SWI/SNF mutation. Finally, we mention others epigenetic mechanisms such as hypomethylation with imprint loss and CG gene activation that induce immunological responses, as well as acetylation, deacetylation and demethylation mechanism in the chromatin and histone context. All previous with the objective to know the clinical use of epigenetic diagnosis and treatment.

KEYWORDS

Malignant pleural mesothelioma, abesto, epigenetics, hypermethylation, genomic instability.

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