LAUSR

In the current era of epigenetics research, we have observed many examples of epigenetic modifications, like histone modification and DNA methylation, in various fatal diseases. These include solid tumors, hematological malignancies and viral infections with DNA or RNA viruses. The purpose of this review is to summarize the role of epigenetic modifications during the abovementioned viral infections, viral-associated and independent malignancies. In this article, the essential biological aspects of DNA methylation are discussed. Then, the relationship between cancer and DNA methylation is explained followed by the examples of methylation because of infections with the hepatitis B virus infection, Epstein-Barr virus infection. Subsequently, histone modifications and DNA methylation are separately observed in the HIV-1 strain infections. The relation between HIV latency and epigenetic modifications is also discussed. Besides that, epigenetic changes because of the comorbid effects of drug abuse and HIV-1 infection are reported. Finally, a DNA methylation analysis of human brain tissue experiment was performed. As a result, we observed few cases such as HIV-mediated dementia, or impaired cell adhesion during cell cycle, which justify the observations discussed in the rest of the article.