Advances in the Role of Epigenetics in Homocysteine-Related Diseases

Abstract

Homocysteine has a wide range of biological effects. However, the specific molecular mechanism of its pathogenicity is still unclear. The diseases induced by hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) are called homocysteine-related diseases. Clinical treatment of HHcy is mainly through folic acid and B-complex vitamins, which are not effective in reducing the associated end point events. Epigenetics is the alteration of heritable genes caused by DNA methylation, histone modification, noncoding RNAs and chromatin remodeling without altering the DNA sequence. In recent years the role of epigenetics in homocysteine-associated diseases has been gradually discovered. This article summarizes the latest evidence on the role of epigenetics in HHcy, providing new directions for its prevention and treatment.

Keywords::

• DNA methylation
• epigenetics
• histone modifications
• homocysteine
• noncoding RNAs

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr Xuehui Wang and Dr Libo Wang for careful reviewing of the manuscript. The authors thank Dr Xulei Duan for the background artwork. Figure 1, Figure 2, Table 1 and Table 2 are all original.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors thank their funding sources, the Provincial Ministry of Medical Science and Technology Tackling Program of Henan Province (no. SB201901060). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.