Examples of epigenetics

Epigenetic examples can be observed in every person in old age. Many diseases are nowadays attributed to epigenetic changes, among other things. A typical example of visible epigenetics is the so-called “X-inactivation”.

Here, an X chromosome is completely silenced by epigenetic processes. This mainly affects women who have two X chromosomes. One X chromosome remains active, which is why no noticeable clinical symptoms occur.

This can lead to the onset of genetic so-called “recessive” diseases on the X chromosome that remains active, which otherwise would not have occurred because they could have been compensated by the second X chromosome. Another example of epigenetics is the so-called “genomic imprinting”. Here, the child’s genes have a parental genomic imprint, which means that only genes of one parent are active. This can also lead to rare diseases such as Angelman syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome or even tumor diseases such as Wilms tumor. The exact effects of genomic imprinting on these diseases are still largely unexplored.

What role does epigenetics play in cancer?

The connections between epigenetics and the development of cancer are being intensively researched. Most cancers are caused by the uninhibited replication of cells, which thus become tumor cells. This may be due to genetic modifications or epigenetic factors.

These can highlight individual gene sequences and lead to tumor growth. Both childhood and adult tumor diseases can be caused by epigenetic changes.In children, these diseases can still be studied particularly well because they have very similar epigenetics. In the course of life, epigenetics change with age and various environmental factors.

This opens up new possibilities for tumor development. However, these epigenetic misregulations of genes can also be used to their own advantage in cancer treatment. In principle, it is possible to modify the epigenetics of an activated gene in such a way that cancer can be directly eliminated. There are still large research gaps in both cancer development and cancer treatment through epigenetic mechanisms. So far, it is not yet possible to apply these methods therapeutically.