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Review
. 2023 Aug 10;9(4):463-472.
doi: 10.1002/ibra.12121. eCollection 2023 Winter.

DNA methylation: The epigenetic mechanism of Alzheimer's disease

Hao-Yue Qin  1 , Jiao-Yan Liu  1 , Chang-Le Fang  2 , Yan-Ping Deng  1 , Ying Zhang  3
Affiliations
Review

DNA methylation: The epigenetic mechanism of Alzheimer's disease

Hao-Yue Qin et al. Ibrain. .

Abstract

Nowadays, with the development of the social health care system, there is an increasing trend towards an aging society. The incidence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is also on the rise. AD is a kind of neurodegenerative disease that can be found in any age group. For years, scientists have been committing to discovering the cause of AD. DNA methylation is one of the most common epigenetic mechanisms in mammals and plays a vital role in the pathogenesis of several diseases, including tumors. Studying chemical changes in the epigenome, or DNA methylation can help us understand the effects of our environment and life on diseases, such as smoking, depression, and menopause, which may affect people's chances of developing Alzheimer's or other diseases. Recent studies have identified some crucial genes like ANK1, RHBDF2, ABCA7, and BIN1, linking DNA methylation to AD. This review focuses on elucidating the relationship between DNA methylation and the pathogenesis of AD and provides an outlook on possible targeted therapeutic modalities.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; DNA methylation; epigenetics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mechanism of DNA methylation in aging‐related genes and Alzheimer's disease. APP, amyloid precursor protein; APOE, apolipoprotein E; Aβ, amyloid β peptide; PSEN2, presenilin 2. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
Figure 2
Figure 2
Targeted therapies for DNA methylation (demethylation of PSEN2 as an example). dCas9‐TET1 is a DNA demethylation modification system that enables rapid promoter demethylation. dCas9‐TET1 demethylation modification system drives transcriptional activation of target genes in various cell types including embryonic stem cells, cancer cell lines, fibroblasts, and primary neurons via TET1 (DNA demethylation motif). AD, Alzheimer's disease; CRISPR/Cas9, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR‐associated protein 9; PSEN2, presenilin 2; TET1, ten‐eleven translocation 1. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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