基于表观遗传修饰探究中医药防治抑郁作用机制研究现状

Research on Mechanism of Depression Control of Traditional Chinese Medicine Based on Epigenetic Modification

表观遗传学是21世纪新兴的遗传学说,其主要研究内容为DNA序列未发生变化的、可遗传的基因表达改变。抑郁症是全球发病率最高的精神疾病之一,但其病因及发病机制尚不明确,有学者曾提出遗传变异与环境因素可能是这种疾病发生发展的原因。近年来随着表观遗传学在抗抑郁作用机制的深入研究,抑郁症的一些表观遗传学机制改变已被发现,如DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰和非编码RNA干扰,这些因素可能会推动抑郁症在应激和环境因素下的发展。中医药作为中华民族智慧的结晶,其在抗抑郁方面的诸多干预方式都取得了显著成效,并且有着经济便捷、不良反应少、复发率低等优势,但内在治疗机理尚不明晰。从表观遗传学角度出发,对多种中医抗抑郁疗法的作用机制研究进行综述,以期为中医药防治抑郁症的临床应用提供新视角。

Epigenetics is the emerging genetics of the 21st century,with unaltered,heritable gene expression changes in DNA sequence.Depression is one of mental diseases which have the highest incidence in the world,but its etiology and pathogenesis are not clear.Some scholars have suggested that genetic variation and environmental factors may be the reasons for the occurrence and development of this disease.With the recent intensive investigation of epigenetic mechanisms of action in anti-depression,several epigenetic mechanism alterations in depression have been discovered,such as DNA methylation,histone modification and noncoding RNA interference,that may drive the development of depression under stress and environmental factors.As the crystallization of the wisdom of the Chinese nation,TCM has achieved remarkable results in many antidepressant intervention methods,and has the advantages of economic convenience,less adverse reactions and low recurrence rate,but the internal treatment mechanism is not clear.This paper aims to review the mechanism of various TCM anti-depression therapies starting from epigenetics,so as to provide a new perspective for the clinical application of TCM to prevent and control depression.