pathology-surgical-pathology-2018-keynote

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September 06-07, 2018 | Edinburgh, Scotland
Pathology and Surgical Pathology
International Conference on
Journal of Pathology and Disease Biology | Volume 2
Notes:
Despite administration of novel therapies, multiple
myeloma (MM) remains incurable with resistance to
drugs leading to relapse in most patients. Thus, it is critical to
understand the mechanisms underlying the drug resistance
of MM and develop more effective therapeutic strategies.
Genetic abnormalities are well known to play a central
role in MM pathogenesis and therapy resistance, however,
epigenetic aberrations mainly affecting the patterns of DNA
methylation / histone modifications of genes (especially
tumor suppressors) and miRNAs have also been shown to be
involved. Importantly, while epigenetic silencing of miRNAs
in MM is well documented, some epigenetic markers are
known to be direct targets of miRNAs particularly the
recently described “epimiRNAs”. Drugs targeting epigenetic
modifiers (e.g. HDACs, EZH2) can sensitize MM resistant
cells to anti-myeloma drugs and reversibility of epigenetic
changes makes these drugs promising therapeutic
agents. Therefore, combination of miRNA mimics with
inhibitors of epigenetic modifiers would be a more potent
therapeutic strategy in MM patients in relapse or refractory
to treatments. We will discuss the findings of recent
investigations on epigenetics/miRNA regulatory axis in
development of drug resistance inMM and highlight possible
approaches for therapeutic applications of such interaction.
Speaker Biography
Hong Chang is a laboratory physician in Hematology and Oncology at Toronto General
Hospital/ University Health Network and a Full Professor at the University of Toronto,
Canada. His research has mainly dealt with the characterization of genetic events for
initiation and progression of multiple myeloma (MM) as well as identification of prognostic
factors and therapeutic targets in MM. Dr. Chang serves on the Editorial Board of several
scientific journals and has published over 140 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts. He
has received many research and educational awards such as the TransAmerica Life Canada
Award from Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC), the Excellence in Life
Sciences Teaching Award, University of Toronto.
e:
Hong Chang
University of Toronto, Canada
Role of epigenetics-microRNA axis in drug resistance of multiple myeloma