Figure 5.

Potential efficacy of DNA methylation inhibition for CRC therapy. Top, promoter and gene body DNA methylation in normal somatic cells. Black lollipops indicate methylated CpG islands, white lollipops indicate unmethylated CpG islands. Middle, promoter (left) or gene body (right) DNA hypermethylation in human cancers. Bottom, promoter DNA hypermethylation may correlate with gene silencing, whereas gene body DNA methylation is associated with actively expressed genes. Treatment with DNA methylation inhibitors results in demethylation of gene promoters and gene body regions, resulting in activation of tumor suppressors, DNA repair response, miRNAs and ERVs, with suppression of oncogenes.