• Molecules and Cells
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• v.45 no.9
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• pp.622-630
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• 2022

Colorectal cancer (CRC) has a high mortality rate among cancers worldwide. To reduce this mortality rate, chemotherapy (5-fluorouracil, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan) or targeted therapy (bevacizumab, cetuximab, and panitumumab) has been used to treat CRC. However, due to various side effects and poor responses to CRC treatment, novel therapeutic targets for drug development are needed. In this study, we identified the overexpression of EHMT1 in CRC using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) data derived from TCGA, and we observed that knocking down EHMT1 expression suppressed cell growth by inducing cell apoptosis in CRC cell lines. In Gene Ontology (GO) term analysis using RNA-seq data, apoptosis-related terms were enriched after EHMT1 knockdown. Moreover, we identified the CHOP gene as a direct target of EHMT1 using a ChIP (chromatin immunoprecipitation) assay with an anti-histone 3 lysine 9 dimethylation (H3K9me2) antibody. Finally, after cotransfection with siEHMT1 and siCHOP, we again confirmed that CHOP-mediated cell apoptosis was induced by EHMT1 knockdown. Our findings reveal that EHMT1 plays a key role in regulating CRC cell apoptosis, suggesting that EHMT1 may be a therapeutic target for the development of cancer inhibitors.

• Journal of Interdisciplinary Genomics
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 2023

Kleefstra syndrome is caused by chromosome 9q34.3 deletion or heterozygous mutations in the Euchromatin Histone Methyl Transferase 1 (EHMT1) gene. The prevalence is estimated 1:25,000 to 1:35,000. Intellectual disability, distinctive facial features, hypotonia in childhood can be accompanied. The spectrum of Kleefstra syndrome includes behavioral/psychiatric problems, hearing and visual impairments, seizures, congenital heart defects, genitourinary defects, and obesity. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the pathophysiology and various manifestation of Kleefstra syndrome and discussing with a multidisciplinary team will help diagnose and treat Kleefstra syndrome patients.