How Epigenetics Helps Us To Cure Diseases

Описание: Epigenetics involves a variety of molecular mechanisms which regulate Ggenes. Through epigenetics, all of our cells (which have the same DNA) can be so different. So let's talk about epigentics, gene regulation and how to treat epigenetic diseases.


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0:00-0:44 Intro
0:44-4:56 What Is Epigenetics?
4:56 Epigenetic Therapies with CRISPR
8:54-11:11 Epigenetics & Cancer Therapy

Let's dive into the fascinating world of epigenetics. After the discovery of DNA is became clear that genes are use to make RNA and proteins. Gene regulation is a process through which the activity of genes is regulated. For gene regulation, we need epigenetics. There are different epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation or histone modifications. Being the first epigenetic layer, DNA methylation works by the modification of cytosine (5-methylcytosine). If we find high levels of 5-methylcytosine near a gene, the gene is often inactive (with some exceptions). I the case of histone modifications it is more complicated as we can modify histones (around which DNA is wrapped) in many different ways.
Since DNA methylation and histone modifications are both reversible epigenetic marks we can add or remove them to cure epigenetic diseases. Epigenetic diseases involves imprinting disorders (such as Prader-Willi syndrome or Angelman syndrome). Imprinting disorders are epigenetic disorders which are caused by the inactivation of a intact gene while the other copy is defective. We could use CRISR/Cas9 to cure epigenetic diseases. Here, we can use dCas9 to other proteis which modify epigenetics. Epigenetics is also utilized in cancer therapy. Different drugs (such as 5-azacytidine or histone deacetylase inhibitors) target the epigenetic marks of cancer cells to destroy them. While epigenetic treatments are already established in cancer therapies it will take sometime until we can use them for imprinting disorders.

For your Reading:
Xie, Nina, et al. "Novel epigenetic techniques provided by the CRISPR/Cas9 system." Stem cells international 2018 (2018).
Jones, P. A., Issa, J. P. J., & Baylin, S. (2016). Targeting the cancer epigenome for therapy. Nature Reviews Genetics, 17(10), 630.
Syding, Linn Amanda, et al. "CRISPR/Cas9 Epigenome Editing Potential for Rare Imprinting Diseases: A Review." Cells 9.4 (2020): 993.
Xu, Xingbo, et al. "High-fidelity CRISPR/Cas9-based gene-specific hydroxymethylation rescues gene expression and attenuates renal fibrosis." Nature communications 9.1 (2018): 1-15.
Virani, Shami, et al. "Cancer epigenetics: a brief review." Ilar Journal 53.3-4 (2012): 359-369.

Images:
Some pictures were derived from Servier Medical Art by Servier. You can find over 3000 free medical images here: https://smart.servier.com/
Cheek cells by Spencer Diamond, CC BY-SA 3.0
Chromatin by Gouttegd, CC BY-SA 3.0
Squamous cell carcinoma by Nephron, CC BY-SA 3.0

Music:
Intro:
Light Sting by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
Body:
Title: Buddha by Kontekst
Genre and Mood: Hip Hop & Rap + Bright
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

About Clemens Steinek:
CLEMENS STEINEK is a postgraduate student/youtuber (LifeLabLearner) who is currently conducting stem cell research in Germany.