Novel insights in phosphodiesterase 4 subtype inhibition to target neuroinflammation and stimulate remyelination

In neurodegenerative and classically demyelinating disorders such as multiple sclerosis(MS),spinal cord injury(SCI),stroke,and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease,glial functioning is compromised and nervous tissue integrity is lost.Recently,primary neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease,amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS),and Parkinson’s disease(PD)are increasingly linked to impaired oligodendroglia functioning upon neurodegeneration.Due to the destructive micro-environment created by nervous tissue damage,the progressive cellular loss in these disorders,and the amitotic nature of neurons,spontaneous endogenous repair process are limited in nature.Hence,there is a medical need for efficient therapeutic strategies capable of supporting neuro-reparative processes to occur,likely supported by improved oligodendroglia cell functioning.

A perspective on causality assessment in epigenetic research on neurodegenerative disorders

Epigenetics refers to herita ble and reversible processes regulating gene expression that do not involve a change to the DNA sequence.Epigenetic modifications include DNA modifications(e.g.DNA methylation a nd hydroxymethyl at ion),histone modifications,and non-coding RNAs such as micro RNAs and long-coding RNAs(Holtzman and Gersbach.