“After this, there is no turning back. You take the
blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want
to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how
deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I’m offering is the truth.” Epigenetics
is a bit like the red pill—the more it is
researched the further down the rabbit hole we are going—the realisation that my choices today as my parents’ and grandparents’
choices yesterday influence who I am now and who I am going to be tomorrow.
Through the study of gene influencers, scientists are discovering that it is
not only the DNA that makes us but which portion of is selected for use that
tells us who we are. In the field of depression, epigenetics is still in its
infancy, nonetheless significant connections have been uncovered. This paper
gives a brief overview on epigenetics and the different mechanisms correlated
with it. It also discusses factors affecting an individual’s epigenetic
patterns and the effect of epigenetics itself. It specifically delves into the
epigenetic effects on psychiatry, mainly depression, depressive symptoms and
antidepressant treatments and the mediation of mechanism of action of the
epigenetic modifications involved.
References
[1]
Haig, D. (2012) Commentary: The Epidemiology of Epigenetics. International Journal of Epidemiology, 41, 13-16. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyr183
[2]
Elhamamsy, A.R. (2017) Role of DNA Methylation in Imprinting Disorders: An Updated Review. Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, 34, 549-562. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-017-0895-5
[3]
Mannstadt, M., Jüppner, H. and Gardella, T.J. (1999) Receptors for PTH and PTHrP: Their Biological Importance and Functional Properties. American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology, 277, F665-F675. https://doi.org/10.1152/ajprenal.1999.277.5.F665
[4]
Williams, S.C.P. (2013) Epigenetics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110, 3209. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1302488110
[5]
Issa, J. and Just, W. (2011) Epigenetics. FEBS Letters, 585, 1993. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.febslet.2011.06.007
[6]
Becker, P.B. and Workman, J.L. (2013) Nucleosome Remodeling and Epigenetics. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, 5, a017905. https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a017905
[7]
Annunziato, A. (2008) DNA Packaging: Nucleosomes and Chromatin. Nature Education, 1, 26.
[8]
Kovalchuk, I. (2012) Epigenetics in Health and Disease. FT Press, New Jersey.
[9]
Vignali, M., Hassan, A.H., Neely, K.E. and Workman, J.L. (2000) ATP-Dependent Chromatin-Remodeling Complexes. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 20, 1899-1910. https://doi.org/10.1128/MCB.20.6.1899-1910.2000
[10]
Davie, J.R. (1998) Covalent Modifications of Histones: Expression from Chromatin Templates. Current Opinion in Genetics & Development, 8, 173-178. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-437X(98)80138-X
[11]
Henikoff, S. and Smith, M.M. (2015) Histone Variants and Epigenetics. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, 7, a019364. https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a019364
[12]
Perrone, L., Matrone, C. and Singh, L.P. (2014) Epigenetic Modifications and Potential New Treatment Targets in Diabetic Retinopathy. Journal of Ophthalmology, 2014, Article ID: 789120.
[13]
Jones, P.A. (2012) Functions of DNA Methylation: Islands, Start Sites, Gene Bodies and Beyond. Nature Reviews Genetics, 13, 484-492. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3230
[14]
Gomez-Martin, C., Lebron, R., Oliver, J.L. and Hackenberg, M. (2018) Prediction of CpG Islands as an Intrinsic Clustering Property Found in Many Eukaryotic DNA Sequences and Its Relation to DNA Methylation. Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.) JID—9214969 OTO—NOTNLM.
[15]
Bird, A.P. (1986) CpG-Rich Islands and the Function of DNA Methylation. Nature, 321, 209-213. https://doi.org/10.1038/321209a0
[16]
Mukherjee, K., Twyman, R.M. and Vilcinskas, A. (2015) Insects as Models to Study the Epigenetic Basis of Disease. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 118, 69-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2015.02.009
[17]
Ehrlich, M. (2002) DNA Methylation in Cancer: Too Much, But Also Too Little. Oncogene, 21, 5400-5413. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1205651
[18]
Baylin, S., Makos, M., Wu, J., et al. (1991) Abnormal Patterns of DNA Methylation in Human Neoplasia: Potential Consequences for Tumor Progression. Cancer Cells, 3, 383-390.
[19]
Neidhart, M. (2016) DNA Methylation and Complex Human Disease. Elsevier, San Diego, Waltham, Oxford.
[20]
Chinnery, P.F., Elliott, H.R., Hudson, G., Samuels, D.C. and Relton, C.L. (2012) Epigenetics, Epidemiology and Mitochondrial DNA Diseases. International Journal of Epidemiology, 41, 177-187. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyr232
