01/03/2016
The new study published in Cancer Cell by Sarris et al. shows that Smyd3 expression correlates with poor prognosis of human hepatocellular carcinoma. Smyd3 is identified as a novel “histone-code reader” protein, which invades active chromatin domains and potentiates the transcription of cancer-related genes. Smyd3 function is required for the activation of oncogenic pathways, cell proliferation and epithelial to mesenchymal transition during tumorigenesis. The results suggest that Smyd3 is a promising therapeutic target for liver and colon cancer.