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Updated: May 24, 2025

Author Spotlight: Reprogramming Cancer Cells to iPSCs to Study Disease Progression and Treatment Targets
Published on: February 2, 2024
Enhancer reprogramming: critical roles in cancer and promising therapeutic strategies
Jinshou Yang1,2,3, Feihan Zhou1,2,3, Xiyuan Luo1,2,3
1Department of General Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
Abstract:
Transcriptional dysregulation is a hallmark of cancer initiation and progression, driven by genetic and epigenetic alterations. Enhancer reprogramming has emerged as a pivotal driver of carcinogenesis, with cancer cells often relying on aberrant transcriptional programs. The advent of high-throughput sequencing technologies has provided critical insights into enhancer reprogramming events and their role in malignancy. While targeting enhancers presents a promising therapeutic strategy, significant challenges remain. These include the off-target effects of enhancer-targeting technologies, the complexity and redundancy of enhancer networks, and the dynamic nature of enhancer reprogramming, which may contribute to therapeutic resistance. This review comprehensively encapsulates the structural attributes of enhancers, delineates the mechanisms underlying their dysregulation in malignant transformation, and evaluates the therapeutic opportunities and limitations associated with targeting enhancers in cancer.
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