[Advances of research on demethylation therapy for hematologic malignancies]

DNA methylation is an important and reversible epigenetic modification which regulates genomic stability. Methylation is essential for mammalian development. Generally, gene expression level and DNA methylation are negative correlation. Transcriptional silencing via methylation of CpG islands in the promoter is important for cell growth and differentiation and plays a key role in tumorigenesis. Demethylation drug can modify chromatin and restore the ability of anti-oncogene. Demethylation therapy as a new therapy may treat efficiently hematological malignancies with resistance and relapse. In this review, DNA methylation mechanism, relationship between aberrant methylation and hematologic malignancies, mechanism of demethylation therapy, the advance of research on the demethylation therapy of hematological malignancies, such as acute and chronic leukemia, lymphoma, myelodysplastic syndrome were summarized.