Application of DNA Methylation in Traditional Chinese Medicine
- VernacularTitle:DNA甲基化在中医药研究中的应用
- Author:
Guang CHEN
1
;
Jie WANG
Author Information
- Keywords: DNA methylation; traditional Chinese medicine; syndrome; mechanism
- From: World Science and Technology-Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine 2017;19(6):957-961
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
- Abstract: As a classic regulation method in epigenetics,DNA methylation regulates the process of transcription.Currendy,it can be utilized in the field of biomarker discovery for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndromes and the study of finding molecular targets of herbal medicine.The former is mainly about exploring the relationship between specific disease syndrome and specific DNA methylation,while the latter is related to evaluating the influence of TCM methods on the change of DNA methylation and relevant methylation enzyme.It is reported that the information of DNA methylation is inheritable and plastic and covers the whole genome,which makes it possible to study the spatio-temporal changes of TCM syndrome and holistic effects of TCM.However,the methodology of syndrome related biomarker discovery deserves improvement and the functional validation of the mechanism still needs further research.It is promising that DNA methylation may elucidate the influence of both inheritance and environment on the advance of diseases and syndromes,and that the interaction of DNA methylation and RNAs might lighten the mechanism of TCM and DNA methylation biomarkers would be employed for the syndrome screening in the population,differentiation of syndromes and prediction of effectiveness of particular medicine.
