Epigenetic mechanisms in brain aging and their role in cognitive decline and mental health disorders.

Q2 Medicine

Handbook of clinical neurology Pub Date : 2026-01-01 DOI:10.1016/B978-0-443-19043-8.00023-2

Carlene Chinn, Marcelo Wood

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The aging brain accumulates increased variability of gene expression over time, in part due to environmental and lifestyle factors that influence an individual's biologic processes underlying healthy and diseased age-related pathology. Targeted by such external factors is the epigenome, a collection of chemical marks on DNA and histone proteins that can change dynamically in response to stimuli and can alter transcriptional machinery to regulate gene expression and protein synthesis. Recent work has revealed epigenetic mechanisms - such as DNA methylation, histone posttranslational modifications, and chromatin remodeling complexes - as key drivers of variation across the genomic landscape in aging. Epigenetic mechanisms integral to cognitive performance and behavior are both permissive and repressive, allowing for either the facilitation or negative regulation of gene expression that enables memory encoding and recall. The epigenome is modified by a large number of molecular processes utilized during the lifespan, which lends itself to exploration of aberrant genetic events accumulated in aging that may contribute to disease. This chapter synthesizes current knowledge in neuroepigenetics as specifically related to age-dependent cognitive processes and discusses new avenues as potential therapeutic or predictive markers for age-related diseases.

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脑老化的表观遗传机制及其在认知能力下降和精神健康障碍中的作用。

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来源期刊

Handbook of clinical neurology Medicine-Neurology (clinical)

CiteScore

4.10

自引率

0.00%

发文量

302

期刊介绍： The Handbook of Clinical Neurology (HCN) was originally conceived and edited by Pierre Vinken and George Bruyn as a prestigious, multivolume reference work that would cover all the disorders encountered by clinicians and researchers engaged in neurology and allied fields. The first series of the Handbook (Volumes 1-44) was published between 1968 and 1982 and was followed by a second series (Volumes 45-78), guided by the same editors, which concluded in 2002. By that time, the Handbook had come to represent one of the largest scientific works ever published. In 2002, Professors Michael J. Aminoff, François Boller, and Dick F. Swaab took on the responsibility of supervising the third (current) series, the first volumes of which published in 2003. They have designed this series to encompass both clinical neurology and also the basic and clinical neurosciences that are its underpinning. Given the enormity and complexity of the accumulating literature, it is almost impossible to keep abreast of developments in the field, thus providing the raison d''être for the series. The series will thus appeal to clinicians and investigators alike, providing to each an added dimension. Now, more than 140 volumes after it began, the Handbook of Clinical Neurology series has an unparalleled reputation for providing the latest information on fundamental research on the operation of the nervous system in health and disease, comprehensive clinical information on neurological and related disorders, and up-to-date treatment protocols.