Open AccessTowards an understanding of the role of DNA methylation in rheumatoid arthritis: therapeutic and diagnostic implications
Author(s) -
Adam P. Cribbs,
Marc Feldmann,
U. Oppermann
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
therapeutic advances in musculoskeletal disease
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.387
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1759-7218
pISSN - 1759-720X
DOI - 10.1177/1759720x15598307
Subject(s) - dna methylation , epigenetics , chromatin , epigenomics , histone , nucleosome , methylation , dna , epigenesis , rheumatoid arthritis , biology , genetics , medicine , computational biology , cancer research , gene , gene expression , immunology
The term ‘epigenetics’ loosely describes DNA-templated processes leading to heritable changes in gene activity and expression, which are independent of the underlying DNA sequence. Epigenetic mechanisms comprise of post-translational modifications of chromatin, methylation of DNA, nucleosome positioning as well as expression of noncoding RNAs. Major advances in understanding the role of DNA methylation in regulating chromatin functions have been made over the past decade, and point to a role of this epigenetic mechanism in human disease. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disorder where altered DNA methylation patterns have been identified in a number of different disease-relevant cell types. However, the contribution of DNA methylation changes to RA disease pathogenesis is at present poorly understood and in need of further investigation. Here we review the current knowledge regarding the role of DNA methylation in rheumatoid arthritis and indicate its potential therapeutic implications.