만성질환연구에서의 후성유전학

Epigenetics on chronic disease research

Epigenetic is defined as any reversible and heritable change in phenotype or gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence. Several epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation and histone modifications, can change genome function under exogenous influence. Our gene directly control approximately 30% of the disease we eventually will acquires, 70% of these conditions can be prevented or remarkably delayed by direct choices we make in our nutrition, activity level, environmental factors and emotional health. It means that 70% can be positively impacted through proper epigenetics. Epigenetic regulation plays a critical role in normal growth and embryonic development by controlling the transcriptional activities of several genes. A growing number of epigenetic changes have been reported in the regulation of key genes involved in cancer and aging. Drugs with epigenetic modulatory activities, mainly histone deacetylase and DNA methyltransferase inhibitors, It have received wider attention in aging and cancer research. Recently dietary compounds have been shown a number of evidences on therapeutic potential of nutritional epigenetic modulations and provide a convincing support to its future clinical use in modern medicine.