Exploring Histone Modifications in Inherited Retinal Disorders

Inherited retinal disorders (IRD) represent a heterogeneous group of retinal diseases, mainly leading to a progressive photoreceptor cell death, and for which almost no treatment exists. Despite the diversity in genetic components of IRD, several studies evidence the activation of common cellular pathways, regulated by epigenetic modifications. Since these ones are reversible, a growing interest emerges in proposing a gene-agnostic approach to treat IRD through epigenetic modulation. Among the epigenetic mechanisms, this review focuses on post-translational modifications of histones, which are key players in gene expression regulation, through their interaction with transcription regulators and their role in chromatin compaction. Mechanistic studies and efficiency assessment of histone mark modifiers, mainly conducted on IRD animal models, revealed a promising potential of this approach to further understand photoreceptor degeneration and treat IRD in humans.