There was an interesting new study published yesterday:

Title: Human DNA methylomes of neurodegenerative diseases show common epigenomic patterns.
Author: Sanchez-Mut JV, Heyn H, Vidal E, Moran S, Sayols S, Delgado-Morales R, Schultz MD, Ansoleaga B, Garcia-Esparcia P, Pons-Espinal M, de Lagran MM, Dopazo J, Rabano A, Avila J, Dierssen M, Lott I, Ferrer I, Ecker JR, Esteller M.
Journal: Transl Psychiatry. 2016 Jan 19;6:e718. doi: 10.1038/tp.2015.214.
PMID: 26784972 – this article is OPEN ACCESS if you would like to read it.

The researchers were curious to look for common genetic markers between the major neurodegenerative disease. It is often forgotten that the different neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, share some common pathological features (the characteristic signs of the diseases in the brain).

For example, when you look at the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, approximately 50% of them will also have the alpha-synuclein-containing ‘Lewy bodies’ in their brains, which are more commonly associated with Parkinson’s disease. Likewise, Beta-amyloid plaques and neurotangles, which are characteristic features of Alzheimer’s disease are commonly found in Parkinson’s disease brains (click here and click here for more on this topic).

To find these shared genetic markers, the researcher extracted DNA from the prefrontal cortex (Brodmann area 9) of the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer-like neurodegenerative profile associated with Down’s syndrome samples (more than 75 percent of people with Down Syndrome aged 65 and older develop Alzheimer’s disease – click here for more on this).

Importantly, the researchers were looking at DNA methylation, which is a commonly used tool that allows a cell to fix genes in the “off” position. That is to say, the gene can not be activated. Thus the researchers were looking for regions of DNA that have to closed down.

They found that a very defined set of genes are turned off in these neurodegenerative disorders, suggesting that these condition might have similar underlying mechanisms or processes that subsequently develop into different clinical entities. These newly identified regions of DNA methylation will be further investigated with the goal that one day they may be used as biomarkers in diagnosis and also as potential new targets for the regenerative therapies.