Epigenetic mechanisms in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A short review

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a rapidly progressing neurodegenerative disease. Decades of research show that the etiology of this disease is affected by genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors rather than limited by a patient's genotype. The interaction between these factors is complex, and research has only begun to unravel this issue. The main epigenetic mechanisms, DNA methylation, miRNA, and histone modifications, can explain a portion of the disease complexity. However, the interplay among the epigenetic mechanisms themselves and with genetic factors remains largely uncharacterized. Epigenetic changes affect numerous cell processes, from transcription and translation to protein metabolism and cell junctions. In this review, we briefly summarize the main epigenetic mechanisms and outline recent research on the role of these epigenetic mechanisms in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.