Epigenetics: Many disorders

It is well know that Epigenetic is becoming a very popular field in Molecular Biology and more specifically cancer research. The genetic code determines which proteins/peptides and gene products are synthesized but it is the epigenetic control that decides where and when they are expressed. This control in expression is very important for embryogenesis, X chromosome inactivation and cellular differentiation and is also vital to synaptic plasticity and memory formation.

Epigenetics machinery is known to be the regulator for cancer genes, like colon cancer gene, breast cancer and many others, but recently Epigenetics has been found to play an influential role in the brain as well. A research group at John Hopkins University recently measured DNA methylation levels in hundreds to thousands of genes and compared the patterns across four different brain regions. The research group found that the levels differed between regions for many genes. This suggests that DNA methylation effects distinguish brain regions and possible play unique roles by each region.

Then, can Epigenetic marks be altered by the environment around someone or something? Well, for example, one study has shown a much greater DNA methylation difference between two identical twins in their 40’s than very young identical twins. This suggests that these changes are accumulated during one’s lifetime even though they are identical genetically.

One of the theorized influences of Epigenetic marks is the amount of stress that one experiences. A study that was done at the University Of Texas Southwestern Medical Center provide some evidence that stress in adulthood can influence epigenetic change. The platform was adult mice that were exposed to highly aggressive neighboring mice and this led to the adult mice to be socially reserved, defeated, and inferior. This in some ways could be compared to signs of human depression. Researchers showed that the adult mice developed histone changes in a depression-related gene/s, and these changes were reversed by the antidepressant imipramine.

So, there is some research evidence behind some of the theories with Epigenetics. However, the search must go on and many more days, months and years of research will be done. Researchers will be using lots of synthetic DNA oligonucleotides, DNA modification (5-Hydroxymethyl-dC-CE Phosphoramidite) and microarray services. Then they will use microarray services to detect methylation across nearly every gene in the mix.