[Epigenetics and etiology of neurodegenerative diseases]

Determination of specific gene profile expression is essential for morphological and functional differentiation of cells in the human organism. The human genome consists of 25-30 thousands genes but only some of them are expressed in each cell. Epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation, histone and chromatin modifications or non-coding RNA functions are also responsible for the unique gene expression patterns. It is suggested that transcriptional gene activation is related to hypomethylation and the transcriptionally non-active sequences are hypermethylated. Covalent histone modifications and DNA methylation are correlated and interacting. Chromatin modeling is regulated not only by specific enzymes but also by protein kinases or phosphatases and coactivators, such as CBP. Such interaction makes the "histone code" which with the chromatin proteins determines gene expression patterns as the response to external agents. Evidence of a major role for epigenetic modifications in neurological disease has come from three converging lines of enquiry: high conservation throughout evolution of the histone residues that are the target for epigenetic modifications; association between mutations in epigenetic components and multisystem disease syndrome in the nervous system; and broad efficacy of small-molecule epigenetic modulators, e.g. histone deacetylase inhibitors, in models of neurological diseases incurable up to now, such as Huntington's disease, (HD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). This article is a survey of the literature concerning the characterization of gene expression patterns correlated with some neurodegenerative diseases. The processes of DNA hypomethylation and histone acetylation are emphasized. The histone deacetylases are indicated as the basis for design of potential drugs.