Credit: Laura Alvarez, CeMM
Numerous disease development processes are linked to epigenetic modulation. One protein involved in the process of modulation and identified as an important cancer marker is BRD4. A recent study by the research group of Giulio Superti-Furga, Principal Investigator and Scientific Director at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, now shows that the supply of purines as well as the purine synthesis of a cell can influence BRD4 activity and thus play a role in the carcinogenesis process. The findings were published in
Nature Metabolism.
Chromatin is a central component of the cell nucleus. It refers to the complex of the approximately two-meter-long human DNA with proteins that organize it so that - depending on the cell type - certain genes are activated or deactivated. In order to be able to adapt to diverse situations and influences, cells read the information relevant to them from the DNA. If this process