Systematic analysis of the aberrances and functional implications of epigenetic genes in hepatocellular carcinoma

Epigenetic alteration leads to the aberrant transcriptional programmes that faciliate cancer onset and progression. In-depth understanding of the epigenetic alteration of cancers is critical for crucial in developing meaningful cancer treatment that may provide a meaningful improvement in overall survival. Based on the data in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we performed a comprehensive and systematic genomic study of epigenetic genes. We defined the epigenetic score to reveal the functional roles of epigenetic genes. We found that epigenetic score was higher in tumors than in normal tissues in most cancers and was associated with poorer prognosis, especially in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Our study also found that epigenetic score is significantly related to immune evasion in HCC. To guide efficient pharmalogical intervention of unfolded protein response to help patients, we performed virtual screening and found some compounds targeting UHRF1 could become a good pharmaceutical therapeutic candidate in unique or adjuvant therapeutic approaches toward HCC.