Epigenetic Priming in Drug Addiction

Epigenetic regulation in drug addiction.

The interaction between environmental signals and genes has now taken on a clear molecular form as demonstrated by stable changes in chromatin structure. These changes occur through activation or repression of specific gene programmes by a combination of chromatin remodelling, activation and enzymatic modification of DNA and histones as well as nucleosomal subunit exchange. Recent research inve...

Redox-based epigenetic status in drug addiction: a potential contributor to gene priming and a mechanistic rationale for metabolic intervention

Alcohol and other drugs of abuse, including psychostimulants and opioids, can induce epigenetic changes: a contributing factor for drug addiction, tolerance, and associated withdrawal symptoms. DNA methylation is a major epigenetic mechanism and it is one of more than 200 methylation reactions supported by methyl donor S-adenosylmethionine (SAM). Levels of SAM are controlled by cellular redox s...

Epigenetic priming: the target?

and inflammatory conditions including immune-mediated bone marrow failure and the often-profound pancytopenia seen in those patients treated with interferons. Apparently , IFN-␣ and IFN-␥ have similar effects in this Irgm1 pathway (Margaret Goodell, personal communication, June 2011). These observations have immediate clinical consequences as an easier-to-tolerate pegy-lated form of IFN-␣ has b...

New Dimension in Drug Addiction Therapy

Neuroimaging in Drug Addiction

Drug addiction is clinically defined in behavioral terms. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV of the American Psychiatric Association defines “substance dependence” as a maladaptive pattern of substance use, leading to clinically significant impairment or distress, as manifested by three or more by the following criteria: tolerance, withdrawal, excessive use, inability to cut down, a great...