A translational perspective on epigenetics in allergic diseases

Abstract

The analysis of epigenetic modifications in allergic diseases has recently attracted substantial interest because epigenetic modifications can mediate the effects of the environment on the development of or protection from allergic diseases. Furthermore, recent research has provided evidence for an altered epigenomic landscape in disease-relevant cell populations. Although still in the early phase, epigenetic modifications, particularly DNA methylation and microRNAs, might have potential for assisting in the stratification of patients for treatment and complement or replace in the future biochemical or clinical tests. The first epigenetic biomarkers correlating with the successful outcome of immunotherapy have been reported, and with personalized treatment options being rolled out, epigenetic modifications might well play a role in monitoring or even predicting the response to tailored therapy. However, further studies in larger cohorts with well-defined phenotypes in specific cell populations need to be performed before their implementation. Furthermore, the epigenome provides an interesting target for therapeutic intervention, with microRNA mimics, inhibitors, and antisense oligonucleotides being evaluated in clinical trials in patients with other diseases. Selection or engineering of populations of extracellular vesicles and epigenetic editing represent novel tools for modulation of the cellular phenotype and responses, although further technological improvements are required. Moreover, interactions between the host epigenome and the microbiome are increasingly recognized, and interventions of the microbiome could contribute to modulation of the epigenome with a potential effect on the overall goal of prevention of allergic diseases.

Epigenome-wide meta-analysis of DNA methylation and childhood asthma

“…There were many more statistically significant associations of asthma in relation to childhood DNA methylation, with 179 CpGs and 36 regions; these might reflect both the risk for and effects of this disease. 50 Among the significant CpGs in newborns, 6 were in DNAse hypersensitivity sites, supporting a potential regulatory effect on Comb-p uses a 1-step Sidak multiple-testing correction on the regional P value assigned by using the Stouffer-Liptak method. àDMRcate takes the minimum Benjamini-Hochberg FDR-corrected P value in the region as representative after recalculating P values by using Gaussian kernel smoothing.…”

Electroacupuncture Promoted Nerve Repair After Peripheral Nerve Injury by Regulating miR-1b and Its Target Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor

“…miRNAs are a class of short (18–25 nucleotides) non-coding small RNAs, which are widely found in eukaryotes. The discovery of miRNAs ranks first among the world’s top 10 technological breakthroughs in Science in 2002. miRNAs are involved in the regulation of various biological processes including autophagy ( Hargarten and Williamson, 2018 ), tumors ( Krump and You, 2018 ), allergic diseases ( Tost, 2018 ), and T-cell immunity ( Giri et al, 2019 ) for mediating gene silencing. Numerous investigations have shown that miRNAs play a vital role in PNI and peripheral nerve repair; for instance, the expression of miRNAs in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) tissues after sciatic nerve injury in rats was significantly changed ( Li et al, 2012 ).…”

Recent findings in the genetics and epigenetics of asthma and allergy

“…On the other hand, the analysis of epigenetic modifications in allergic diseases has recently attracted substantial interest, as epigenetic modifications might mediate the effects of the environment on the development of or protection from allergic diseases as well as constitute a novel class of biomarkers and potentially provide new therapeutic targets [8,9]. Epigenetics, which includes DNA methylation, posttranslational histone modifications, nucleosome occupancy, and small and long noncoding RNAs, may indeed hold the key to explaining the high degree of plasticity of the immune response throughout life.…”