Epigenetics and Human Health (Linking Hereditary, Environmental and Nutritional Aspects) || Epigenetic Biomarkers in Neurodegenerative Disorders

✍ Scribed by Haslberger, Alexander G.

• Publisher: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: German
• Weight: 68 KB
• Edition: 1
• Category: Article
• ISBN: 3527324275
• DOI: 10.1002/9783527628384.ch19

✦ Synopsis

Neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson ' s, Alzheimer ' s, and Huntington ' s diseases generally begin late in life and are characterized by a presymptomatic phase. Therefore, biomarkers are needed for early, accurate and specifi c diagnosis and to provide surrogate endpoints for new drug effi cacy testing. Inherited neurological and neurodegenerative disorders with mutation in genes that modify epigenetic marks, the current evidence of epigenetic dysregulation in neurodegenerative disorders and the benefi cial effect of histone deacetylases (HDACs) inhibitors in models of neurodegenerative disorders imply that epigenetics abnormalities contribute to neurodegeneration. Bioinformatic analysis of differentially transcribed genes predicted to have CpG islands in the promoter regions support this concept. It could be therefore argued that epigenetic biomarkers might be useful for diagnostic purposes and the development/testing of new drugs as well as for improvement of our understanding of the complex interaction between genetic predisposition and environment in neurodegenerative disorders.

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