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Review
. 2015;7(6):1017-32.
doi: 10.2217/epi.15.53. Epub 2015 Oct 7.

Epigenome-modifying tools in asthma

Peter O Brook  1 , Mark M Perry  1 , Ian M Adcock  1 , Andrew L Durham  1
Affiliations
Review

Epigenome-modifying tools in asthma

Peter O Brook et al. Epigenomics. 2015.

Abstract

Asthma is a chronic disease which causes recurrent breathlessness affecting 300 million people worldwide of whom 250,000 die annually. The epigenome is a set of heritable modifications and tags that affect the genome without changing the intrinsic DNA sequence. These marks include DNA methylation, modifications to histone proteins around which DNA is wrapped and expression of noncoding RNA. Alterations in all of these processes have been reported in patients with asthma. In some cases these differences are linked to disease severity and susceptibility and may account for the limited value of genetic studies in asthma. Animal models of asthma suggest that epigenetic modifications and processes are linked to asthma and may be tractable targets for therapeutic intervention.

Keywords: DNA methylation; T cell; asthma; epigenetics; histone modification; miRNA; therapeutics.

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Conflict of interest statement

Financial & competing interests disclosure MM Perry is an Imperial College Research Fellow. MM Perry is a member of Interuniversity Attraction Poles Program-Belgian State-Belgian Science Policy – project P7/30. IM Adcock is supported by the Wellcome Trust (093080/Z/10/Z), the MRC (G1001367/1), EU-IMI, the Dunhill Medical Trust and by the British Heart Foundation. AL Durham is supported by the British Lung Foundation and Pfizer. PO Brook is supported by the MRC-Asthma UK Centre for Asthma and Allergic Mechanisms. The authors are supported by the NIHR Respiratory Disease Biomedical Research Unit at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College London. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

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