关注和跟踪表观遗传研究在眼科疾病诊治中的应用

Epigenetics,diseases and therapy in ophthalmology

不涉及修改基因编码序列的、可遗传的基因表达变化称为表观遗传改变,眼科表观遗传学是当前生物医学研究的热点之一.表观遗传机制主要包括DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰、染色质重排及非编码RNA.异常的DNA甲基化和组蛋白修饰与许多年龄相关性疾病密切关联,如癌症、自身免疫性疾病和其他疾病.近年来,表观遗传对眼科疾病发生和发展的调控机制及其在治疗中的作用日益引起研究者的关注,不仅加深了人们对相关眼病发病机制的理解,而且由于表观遗传性改变是可逆的,因此对与相关眼病有关的基因标志进行修饰也为这些疾病的预防、早期诊断和治疗提供了新的思路.我们讨论眼科表观遗传学的机制及表观遗传改变在眼病发生和发展过程中的作用,希望眼科研究人员重视基因表达改变与环境因素的相互作用及其对眼部发育和眼部疾病发病过程的影响,更重要的是应将这些研究成果更好地用于眼科疾病的预防和治疗.

Heritable changes in gene expression are regarded as epigenetics,which do not involve coding sequence modifications.The study of ophthalmology epigenetics is a rapidly growing area in biomedical research.Epigenetic mechanisms principally include DNA methylation,histone modification,chromatin remodeling and noncoding RNA.Aberrant DNA methylation and histone modification are linked to a number of age-related disorders,such as cancer,autoimmune and others.In recent years,the modulations of epigenetic changes on the pathogenesis of eye disorders and their roles in therapeutic interventions are drawing more and more attention,and these studies deepen the understanding of relevant diseases.Since the epigenetic alterations are reversible,modifying epigenetic marks contributing to eye diseases provide a new approach to the development of disease prevention,diagnosis and therapies.Herein we discuss the roles of epigenetic changes in eye disease development,hoping that ophthalmologists and researchers pay attention to these researching cues in pathogenesis of eye disorders caused by genetic expression alterations in response to environmental changes,importantly,to the implication for relevant eye disease therapy and prevention.