Fig. 2: Context-specific roles of G9a in neoplastic and healthy tissues.
From: Emerging role of G9a in cancer stemness and promises as a therapeutic target
In cancer stem cell populations (green), G9a functions at multiple levels to drive cancer progression through molecular networks maintaining self-renewal and tumorigenicity. By promoting the CSC phenotype, G9a contributes to tumor immune evasion. On the other hand, in healthy tissues (red), G9a is an essential regulator of cell fate and differentiation genes, homeostasis, and maintenance of heterochromatin. Although G9a was extensively linked to cancer progression, the untargeted inhibition of its HMTase activity may have deleterious effects on normal cell functions and compromise future translational applications.
