Skip to main content
Log in

Emerging Epigenetic Therapies for Brain Tumors

  • Review
  • Published:
NeuroMolecular Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Malignant brain tumors are among the most intractable cancers, including malignancies such as glioblastoma, diffuse midline glioma, medulloblastoma, and ependymoma. Unfortunately, treatment options for these brain tumors have been inadequate and complex, leading to poor prognoses and creating a need for new treatment modalities. Aberrant epigenetics define these types of tumors, with underlying changes in DNA methylation, histone modifications, chromatin structure and noncoding RNAs. Epigenetic-targeted therapies are an alternative that have the potential to reverse the epigenetic deregulation underpinning brain malignancies. Various drugs targeting epigenetic regulators have shown promise in preclinical and clinical testing. In this review, we highlight some of the recent emerging epigenetic targeted therapies for brain tumors being evaluated in the discovery phase and in clinical trials.

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

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

Not applicable.

Code Availability

Not applicable.

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Kuo lab members for their comments on the manuscript.

Funding

Funding support is appreciated from Dell Medical School, Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences, LIVESTRONG Cancer Institutes and UT Austin.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

Conception and design (LK, VRI, JSK), Literature search (LK, CL, SE), Manuscript preparation (LK, CL, SE, VRI, JSK), Final approval (VRI, JSK).

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John S. Kuo.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Not applicable.

Ethics Approval

Not applicable.

Consent for Publication

Not applicable.

Consent to Participate

Not applicable.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kukreja, L., Li, C.J., Ezhilan, S. et al. Emerging Epigenetic Therapies for Brain Tumors. Neuromol Med 24, 41–49 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12017-021-08691-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12017-021-08691-x

Keywords

Navigation