Possible organ and age-related epigenetic factors in Huntington's disease and colorectal carcinoma

It is hypothesized that the expression of Huntington's disease and the development of sporadic colorectal carcinomas may largely depend on age-related epigenetic defects in methylation pattern of DNA at the disease associated loci. In the former case the potential defects may be coupled with a DNA demethylation and activation in the brain of a silent growth factor-like gene that may induce an abnormal cell differentiation. In the development of colon carcinomas the age-related process may affect potential growth regulatory genes that may normally become demethylated and active in the colon as part of their differential expression. In such a state and possibly also due to their structure, they may be especially prone to the epigenetic defects that may lead in this case to gene point mutation and deletion.