title: Epigenetic modifications as novel therapeutic targets for Huntington's disease.
abstract: Huntington's disease is a late-onset, autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor, cognitive and psychiatric symptomatology. The earliest stage of Huntington's disease is marked by alterations in gene expression, which partially results from dysregulated epigenetic modifications. In past decades, altered epigenetic markers including histone modifications (acetylation, methylation, ubiquitylation and phosphorylation) and DNA modifications (cytosine methylation and hydroxymethylation) have been reported as important epigenetic features in patients and multiple animal models of Huntington's disease. Drugs aimed to correct some of those alterations have shown promise in treating Huntington's disease. This article discusses the field of epigenetics for potential Huntington's disease interventions and presents the most recent findings in this area.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biomembrane & Membrane Biotechnology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
authors.forename: Fengli
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Paula L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Fischhaber
authors.forename: Caixia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Tie-Shan
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D000107:Acetylation; D000818:Animals; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic / Q000187:drug effects; D056572:Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D000071058:Huntingtin Protein; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D008745:Methylation; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D054875:Ubiquitination
chemical_list: C086055:HTT protein, human; D056572:Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors; D006657:Histones; D000071058:Huntingtin Protein; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins
keywords: 5-hydroxymethylcytosine; DNA methylation; HDAC inhibitors; Huntington’s disease; epigenetic dysregulation; histone acetylation; histone methylation; histone ubiquitination; therapeutic target; transcriptional dysregulation