ARS | Publication request: Nutrients and DNA Methylation

Submitted to: Nutrients and Epigenetics
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: October 6, 2008
Publication Date: May 5, 2009
Citation: Choi, S., Friso, S. 2009. Nutrients and DNA Methylation. In: Choi, S.W., Friso, S., editors. Nutrients and Epigenetics. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. p.105-119.

Technical Abstract: Epigenetics is a new mechanism responsible for development, aging, and disease process such as cancer development. One major epigenetic phenomenon is DNA methylation, which attributes to gene expression and integrity. Deepening the knowledge on one-carbon metabolism is very important to understanding DNA methylation because DNA methylation is directly associated with the status of AdoMet, the unique methyl donor, and AdoHcy, an inhibitor of methyltransferases, both of which are metabolites of one-carbon metabolism and can be influenced by dietary nutrients, such as methionine, choline, betaine, folate and vitamin B-12. Due to its reversibility, DNA methylation is more attractive to the field of nutritional intervention in cancer rather than irreversible phenomena such as mutations or loss of heterozygosity. Furthermore, inhibitors of DNA methyltransferases, which have been used to investigate on epigenetic mechanisms, are now tested in several clinical trials of cancer chemotherapy. Thus, studies on DNA methylation, especially the modulation of DNA methyltransferase activity using bioactive food compounds such as genistein or catechin, will lead us to potentially safe and effective nutritional intervention strategy against cancer disease.