Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015;8 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S5.
doi: 10.1186/1755-8794-8-S1-S5. Epub 2015 Jan 15.

The role of epigenetics in personalized medicine: challenges and opportunities

Mahmood Rasool, Arif Malik, Muhammad Imran Naseer, Abdul Manan, Shakeel Ansari, Irshad Begum, Mahmood Husain Qazi, Peter Pushparaj, Adel M Abuzenadah, Mohammed Hussein Al-Qahtani, Mohammad Amjad Kamal, Siew Gan
Review

The role of epigenetics in personalized medicine: challenges and opportunities

Mahmood Rasool et al. BMC Med Genomics. 2015.

Abstract

Epigenetic alterations are considered to be very influential in both the normal and disease states of an organism. These alterations include methylation, acetylation, phosphorylation, and ubiquitylation of DNA and histone proteins (nucleosomes) as well as chromatin remodeling. Many diseases, such as cancers and neurodegenerative disorders, are often associated with epigenetic alterations. DNA methylation is one important modification that leads to disease. Standard therapies are given to patients; however, few patients respond to these drugs, because of various molecular alterations in their cells, which may be partially due to genetic heterogeneity and epigenetic alterations. To realize the promise of personalized medicine, both genetic and epigenetic diagnostic testing will be required. This review will discuss the advances that have been made as well as the challenges for the future.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Epigenetic alterations in biological systems
Figure 2
Figure 2
Roles of pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics in disease treatment and personalized medicine
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Heijmans BT, Tobi EW, Stein AD, Putter H, Blauw GJ, Susser ES, Slagboom PE, Lumey LH. Persistent epigenetic differences associated with prenatal exposure to famine in humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2008;105:17046–17049. - PMC - PubMed
    1. McGowan PO, Sasaki A, D'Alessio AC, Dymov S, Labonté B, Szyf M, Turecki G, Meaney MJ. Epigenetic regulation of the glucocorticoid receptor in human brain associates with childhood abuse. Nat Neurosci. 2009;12:342–348. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jirtle RL, Skinner MK. Environmental epigenomics and disease susceptibility. Nat Rev Genet. 2007;8:253–262. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sadikoric B, Al-Romaih K, Squire JA, Zielinske M. Causes and Consequences of Genetic and Epigenetic Alterations in Human Cancer. Current Genomic. 2008;9:394–408. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mikkelson TS. Genome-wide maps of chromatin state in Pluripotent and Lineage-committed cells. Nature. 2007;448:553–560. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources