A novel role of tumor suppressor ZMYND8 in inducing differentiation of breast cancer cells through its dual-histone binding function

Accumulating evidences indicate the involvement of epigenetic deregulations in cancer. While some epigeneticregulators with aberrant functions in cancer are targeted for improving therapeutic outcome in patients,reinstating the functions of tumor-suppressor-like epigenetic regulators might further potentiate anti-cancertherapies. Epigenetic reader zinc-finger MYND-type-containing 8 (ZMYND8) has been found to be endowedwith multiple anti-cancer functions like inhibition of tumor cell migration and proliferation. Here, we reportanother novel tumor suppressor role of ZMYND8 as an inducer of differentiation in breast cancer cells, byupregulating differentiation genes. Interestingly, we also demonstrated that ZMYND8 mediates all its antitumor roles through a common dual-histone mark binding to H4K16Ac and H3K36Me2. We validated thesefindings by both biochemical and biophysical analyses. Furthermore, we also confirmed the differentiationinducing potential of ZMYND8 in vivo, using 4T1 murine breast cancer model in Balb/c mice. Differentiationtherapy holds great promise in cancer therapy, since it is non-toxic and makes the cancer cells therapysensitive. In this scenario, we propose epigenetic reader ZMYND8 as a potential therapeutic candidate fordifferentiation therapy in breast cancer

Prevalence and risk factors of asthma and wheeze in school-going children in Lucknow, North India.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of asthma and wheeze and factors associated with it in children aged 6-7 and 13-14 years. METHOD: School based, prospective survey using self/parental reporting of occurrence of asthma or wheeze on pre-designed questionnaire. RESULTS: Out of 112 schools, 17 and 15 schools were randomly selected for recruitment of subjects in age group 6-7 and 13-14 years, respectively. Prevalence of asthma and wheeze reported were 2.3% and 6.2%, respectively, in age group 6-7 years and 3.3% and 7.8%, respectively, in age group 13-14 years. On the basis of adjusted odds ratio, risk factors for wheeze or asthma were tertiary education of mother, antibiotic use in the first year of life, eating pasta or fast-food or meat once or more per week and exercise once or more/week while the protective factors were intake of vegetables once or more and fruits thrice or more per week. In univariate analysis, breastfeeding was also found to be protective. CONCLUSION: Promotion of rational use of antibiotic in first year of life, avoidance of fast food and promotion of breastfeeding and intake of fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of asthma/wheeze and should be encouraged.