Researchers Discover Novel DNA Methylation Patterns in Patients With PD
Alterations in DNA methylation patterns, discovered in the blood of patients with Parkinson disease (PD), have the potential to serve as an epigenetic biomarker for PD, according to study results published in the Annals of Neurology.
“DNA methylation in some ways serves as a memory of prior environmental exposures that ultimately alter methylation signatures in our cells and body,” said study lead author Paulina Gonzalez-Latapi, MD, MS, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois. “It’s a significant step towards unraveling the complex interactions at play in PD and could pave the way for pinpointing potential biomarkers for early detection and progression.”
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To better understand DNA methylation differences in PD, researchers studied whole blood samples of 196 patients with sporadic PD and 86 healthy control subjects enrolled in the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative study. Investigators analyzed genome-wide methylation data to identify changes over 3 years, and then integrated the data with gene expression data gleaned from RNA sequencing.
The analyses revealed 75 differently expressed genes with different methylation patterns in patients with PD compared with healthy controls, according to the study.
Among the findings were differences in DNA methylation within the CYP2E1 gene that were consistent throughout the 3-year study period. Dr Gonzalez-Latapi explained that the CYP2E1 protein metabolizes substrates, including pesticides associated with PD development.
In the future, the team plans to study DNA methylation data from patients in the prodromal phase of PD who are not yet symptomatic. They also aim to investigate how environmental exposures impact methylation changes over longer time intervals.
“The characterization of DNA methylation and gene expression patterns in blood holds the potential to help us understand complex interactions between environmental and genetic factors in development of PD,” said senior author Dimitri Krainc MD, PhD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
“From a broader perspective, such patient-based studies will help categorize PD patients through a biological lens that will ultimately facilitate the development of more precise treatments for patients with different subtypes of disease.”
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