Epigenetic mechanism in cognitive function / 中国药理学通报

ABSTRACT

The definition of epigenetics and its cellular basis are introduced firstly in the paper. Then, the research progress on the relationship between cognition and epigenetic changes is re-viewed in detail. In conclusion, epigenetic modifications occur-ring in hippocampus, cortex and other brain areas such as methy-lation , phosphorylation , ubiquitination , poly ( ADP-ribos ) poly-merases and DNA methylation may certainly change animal be-haviors including learning, memory, synaptic plasticity, depres-sion, drug abuse and so on. Long-term memory and long-term potentiation( LTP) , activation of AMPK-ERK signal transduction path-way and activation of key gene regulated by CREB-ABP transcriptional complex as well as transcription and expression of memory and synaptic plasticity related genes ( Zif/268, Creb, Bdnf, reelin ) are required. In contrast, epigenetic abnormal changes such as histone and DNA hypomethylation and increase of HDAC activity are observed in brains of aging and neurodegen-erative diseases. Therefore, the main epigenetic treatments for cognitive impairments are increasing histone and DNA methyla-tion, using HDAC inhibitors and RNA interference ( RNAi) to promote formation of long term memory and long term potentia-tion, block learning and memory decline.