Epigenetic regulation in gallbladder cancer: Promoter methylation profiling as emergent novel biomarkers

DNA methylation, once considered to rule the sex determination in Mary Lyon's hypothesis, has now reached the epicenter of human diseases, from monogenic (e.g. Prader Willi syndrome, Angelman syndromes and Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome) to polygenic diseases, like cancer. Technological developments from gold standard to high throughput technologies have made tremendous advancement to define the epigenetic mechanism of cancer. Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is a fatal health issue affecting mostly the middle-aged women, whose survival rate is very low due to late symptomatic diagnosis. DNA methylation has become one of the key molecular mechanisms in the tumorigenesis of gallbladder. Various molecules have been reported to be epigenetically altered in GBC. In this review, we have discussed the classes of epigenetics, an overview of DNA methylation, technological approaches for its study, profile of methylated genes, their likely roles in GBC, future prospects of biomarker development and other discovery approaches, including therapeutics.