Figure 5.

The effect of mycotoxins on DNA methylation and cancer. Mycotoxins can alter global DNA methylation and/or promoter DNA methylation in various cells both in vitro and in vivo. Global DNA hypomethylation leads to genome instability and increases the frequency of DNA mutations. Mutated cells are destroyed via apoptosis or evade cell cycle regulatory checkpoints and proliferate, leading to cancer development and progression. Promoter DNA methylation contributes to carcinogenesis via the transcriptional repression of tumor suppressor genes and/or transcriptional activation of oncogenes.