肥胖导致男性不育的表观遗传机制研究进展

肥胖引发表观遗传改变可导致男性出现不育表型。关于肥胖与男性不育的关系问题,早期研究多集中于内分泌方面。近年研究发现肥胖还可以引发机体表观遗传改变,如DNA甲基化,残余组蛋白修饰,小RNA等,影响精子成熟发育。DNA甲基化是胞嘧啶-磷酸-鸟嘌呤二核苷酸的胞嘧啶残基上的调节标记,肥胖导致DNA甲基化异常,并改变mRNA表达丰度,还可以影响印记基因表达出现印记基因病。残余组蛋白修饰方式包括甲基化、乙酰化等,它们可以相互作用或协同作用,以保证精子正常生长发育。肥胖可以改变甲基化酶及乙酰化酶活性,直接影响残余组蛋白的甲基化和乙酰化;还可以影响精子小RNA的表达,导致精子缺陷。本文就肥胖引起的表观遗传学改变及导致男性不育的作用机制做逐一综述。     

表观遗传修饰与肝癌的关系

表观遗传学是指基因的核苷酸序列在不发生改变的情况下,基因表达了可遗传的表型变化.表观遗传机制的失调在人类恶性肿瘤包括肝癌发生、发展过程中发挥了重要作用.目前研究结果发现:大量表观遗传可调节有关基因靶点和信号转导通路,如DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰、RNA调节基因沉默等与肝癌的发生和发展密切相关.探究这些异常的表观遗传机制对诊断和治疗肝癌有着重要的意义.     

精子发生过程中的表观遗传学调控

精子发生是由精原细胞增殖、精母细胞减数分裂以及精子形成所组成的连续过程。精子发生也是染色质不断凝集的过程,最终在精子头部达到高度浓缩状态。近年来的研究表明,表观遗传调控在精子发生过程中发挥作用。我们将从三方面简要阐述精子发生过程中的表观遗传学调控机制:DNA甲基化,组蛋白修饰以及非编码RNA。这些表观因素之间也可以互相调控,通过调控基因表达、转座子活化、性染色体失活以及基因印记等,在精子发生,受精以及胚胎发育过程中扮演重要角色。     

前列腺癌的表观遗传学研究进展

前列腺癌是男性最常见的恶性肿瘤之一,其病因和发病机制尚不清楚。表观遗传参与了前列腺癌病程的各个阶段,与前列腺癌的发生、发展及转移密切相关,其中DNA甲基化和组蛋白修饰是前列腺癌中最为重要的两种表观遗传表现形式。DNA异常甲基化对肿瘤发生影响机制主要有:基因组广泛性低甲基化、局部过度甲基化、基因突变热点,与前列腺癌DNA损伤修复、激素应答、肿瘤细胞浸润/转移、细胞周期调控等过程密切相关。而组蛋白修饰的异常则将引起相应染色体结构和基因转录水平改变,影响细胞周期、分化和凋亡,导致前列腺癌的发生。目前已有一些针对前列腺癌表观遗传改变的治疗,主要有DNA甲基化转移酶和组蛋白去乙酰化酶抑制剂,并取得了一定的效果。相信随着对表观遗传学研究的深入,必将为前列腺癌的治疗开辟一条新思路。     

神经病理性疼痛的表观遗传学发展方向

背景 神经病理性疼痛(neuropathic pain,NP)是由神经系统的损害或炎症引起的一种常见而特殊的慢性疼痛,以痛觉过敏、异常痛敏和自发痛为特征.目前发病机制不清,发病率逐年上升,处理非常棘手而且目前的治疗方法疗效不佳,是医学领域的挑战性研究课题. 目的 综述表观遗传学在疼痛中的研究状况. 内容 主要对表观遗传学的基本原理、生物学作用以及表观遗传学在疼痛中的研究进展进行综述. 趋向 表观遗传学在NP中的作用将为人们进一步深入阐明疼痛机制提供新的思路,为NP的治疗提供新的策略.     

肝细胞癌的表观遗传学研究进展

肝细胞癌简称肝癌(hepatocellular carcinoma)的发病率、病死率呈逐年上升趋势,尽管几种主要危险致病因素已经比较明确,但是肝癌发生的确切的分子生物学机制尚不完全清楚.近年来越来越多的证据表明,表观遗传修饰(epigenetics)在肝癌的发生发展中具有非常重要的作用.本文将就DNA的异常甲基化、组蛋白异常修饰与肝癌的关系,肝癌的表观遗传学检测及表观遗传学治疗现状做一综述.     

骨质疏松症与表观遗传学

骨质疏松症是老年人常见的退行性疾病,老龄化的社会结构也使得骨质疏松症具有广泛的发病人群,其继发骨折的风险较高,危害性大。骨质疏松症以骨强度下降,骨折风险增加为特征的一种全身性骨骼系统疾病,它受年龄、性别、体内性激素水平、遗传、环境等多方面因素的影响。近年来,随着基因技术的发展,遗传因素与骨质疏松症的相关研究也逐渐增加,其热点之一为表观遗传学。表观遗传是不同于传统孟德尔遗传定律,不通过改变DNA序列所致的可遗传的基因表达变化,它包括DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰、微小RNA(miRNA)、染色质重塑等。本文就骨质疏松症与表观遗传学的研究现状进行阐述,旨在揭示骨质疏松症在表观遗传学方面可能的发病机制。     

绝经后骨质疏松症发病机制的表观遗传学研究进展

表观遗传学修饰是指在DNA序列未变化情况下发生可遗传的基因表达的变化,主要机制包括DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰、非编码RNAs、染色质修饰等。绝经后骨质疏松症(postmenopausal osteoporosis,PMOP)属于原发性骨质疏松症的一种,主要是由于绝经后女性激素水平改变等原因致使骨代谢失衡,骨微结构破坏,骨量减少。近年来,大量研究证实了表观遗传学参与绝经后骨质疏松症的发生发展,本文将从DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰和非编码RNAs这三个方面综述绝经后骨质疏松症在表观遗传学方面的发病机制。     

表观遗传学与乳腺癌

表观遗传学是基于非DNA序列改变而产生的基因表达的变化,与肿瘤的发生密切相关,具有可逆性和遗传性,主要包括DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰和染色体重组,它们相互作用,影响基因表达.乳腺癌中,表观遗传调节改变了一些重要基因的表达,导致了肿瘤的产生和发展.表观遗传学的研究对乳腺癌的发生、发展、早期诊断、预后评估、治疗和复发监测产生了深远的影响.     

Epigenetic mechanisms involved in developmental nutritional programming

The ways in which epigenetic modifications fix the effects of early environmental events,ensuring sustained responses to transient stimuli,which result in modified gene expression patterns and phenotypes later in life,is a topic of considerable interest.This review focuses on recently discovered mechanisms and calls into question prevailing views about the dynamics,position and functions of epigenetic marks.Most epigenetic studies have addressed the long-term effects on a small number of epigenetic marks,at the global or individual gene level,of environmental stressors in humans and animal models.In parallel,increasing numbers of studies based on high-throughput technologies and focusing on humans and mice have revealed additional complexity in epigenetic processes,by highlighting the importance of crosstalk between the different epigenetic marks.A number of studies focusing on the developmental origin of health and disease and metabolic programming have identified links between early nutrition,epigenetic processes and long-term illness.The existence of a self-propagating epigenetic cycle has been demonstrated.Moreover,recent studies demonstrate an obvious sexual dimorphism both for programming trajectories and in response to the same environmental insult.Despite recent progress,we are still far from understanding how,when and where environmental stressors disturb key epigenetic mechanisms.Thus,identifying the original key marks and their changes throughout development during an individual’s lifetime or over several generations remains a challenging issue.     

Recent Advances in Epigenetic Biomarkers and Epigenetic Targeting in Prostate Cancer

ContextIn addition to genetic alterations, epigenetic alterations play a crucial role during prostate cancer progression. A better understanding of the epigenetic factors that promote prostate cancer progression may lead to the design of rational therapeutic strategies to target prostate cancer more effectively.ObjectiveTo systematically review recent literature on the role of epigenetic factors in prostate cancer and highlight key preclinical and translational data with epigenetic therapies.Evidence acquisitionWe performed a systemic literature search in PubMed. At the request of the editors, we limited our search to articles published between January 2015 and August 2020 in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Clinical trials targeting epigenetic factors were retrieved from clinicaltrials.gov.Evidence synthesisWe retrieved 1451 articles, and 62 were finally selected for review. Twelve additional foundational studies outside this time frame were also included. Findings from both preclinical and clinical studies were reviewed and summarized. We also discuss 12 ongoing clinical studies with epigenetic targeted therapies.ConclusionsEpigenetic mechanisms impact prostate cancer progression. Understanding the role of specific epigenetic factors is critical to determine how we may improve prostate cancer treatment and modulate resistance to standard therapies. Recent preclinical studies and ongoing or completed clinical studies with epigenetic therapies provide a useful roadmap for how to best deploy epigenetic therapies clinically to target prostate cancer.Patient summaryEpigenetics is a process by which gene expression is regulated without changes in the DNA sequence itself. Oftentimes, epigenetic changes influence cellular behavior and contribute to cancer development or progression. Understanding how epigenetic changes occur in prostate cancer is the first step toward therapeutic targeting in patients. Importantly, laboratory-based studies and recently completed and ongoing clinical trials suggest that drugs targeting epigenetic factors are promising. More work is necessary to determine whether this class of drugs will add to our existing treatment arsenal in prostate cancer.     

表观遗传学与乳腺癌

表观遗传学是基于非DNA序列改变而产生的基因表达的变化,与肿瘤的发生密切相关,具有可逆性和遗传性,主要包括DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰和染色体重组,它们相互作用,影响基因表达。乳腺癌中,表观遗传调节改变了一些重要基因的表达,导致了肿瘤的产生和发展。表观遗传学的研究对乳腺癌的发生、发展、早期诊断、预后评估、治疗和复发监测产生了深远的影响。