Neuropharmacology
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Epigenetic regulation has been long considered to be a critical mechanism in the control of key aspects of cellular functions such as cell division, growth, and cell fate determination. Exciting recent developments have demonstrated that epigenetic mechanisms can also play necessary roles in the nervous system by regulating, for example, neuronal gene expression, DNA damage, and genome stability. Despite the fact that postmitotic neurons are developmentally less active then dividing cells, epigenetic regulation appears to provide means of both long-lasting and very dynamic regulation of neuronal function. ⋯ Here, we review some of the epigenetic mechanisms that regulate cognition and how their disruption may contribute to cognitive dysfunctions. Due to the fact that histone acetylation and DNA methylation are some of the best-studied and critically important epigenomic modifications our research team has particularly strong expertise in, in this review, we are going to concentrate on histone acetylation, as well as DNA methylation/hydroxymethylation, in the mammalian CNS. Additional epigenetic modifications, not surveyed here, are being discussed in depth in the other review articles in this issue of Neuropharmacology.
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Covalent modifications of nucleotides, such as methylation or hydroxymethylation of cytosine, regulate gene expression. Early environmental risk factors play a role in mental disorders in adulthood. This may be in part mediated by epigenetic DNA modifications. ⋯ Several disease-associated changes in methylation have been reported: hypermethylation of SOX10 in schizophrenia, hypomethylation of HCG9 (HLA complex group 9) in bipolar disorder, hypermethylation of PRIMA1, hypermethylation of SLC6A4 (serotonin transporter) in bipolar disorder, and hypomethylation of ST6GALNAC1 in bipolar disorder. These findings need to be replicated in different patient populations to be generalized. Further studies including animal experiments are necessary to understand the roles of DNA methylation in mental disorders.