Emerging Role of Epigenetics in the Actions of Alcohol

This review deals with the recent developments on the epigenetic effects of ethanol. A large body of data have come from studies in liver and in neuronal systems and involve post‐translational modifications in histones and methylations in DNA. Ethanol causes site selective acetylation, methylation,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research clinical and experimental research, 2008-09, Vol.32 (9), p.1525-1534
Main Authors: Shukla, Shivendra D., Velazquez, Jose, French, Samuel W., Lu, Shelly C., Ticku, Maharaj K., Zakhari, Samir
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acetylation
Acetylation - drug effects
Alcoholism and acute alcohol poisoning
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Central Nervous System Depressants - pharmacology
DNA
DNA Methylation - drug effects
Epigenesis, Genetic - drug effects
Epigenetics
Ethanol
Ethanol - pharmacology
Gene Expression Profiling
Histone
Histones - metabolism
Humans
Medical sciences
Methylation
Toxicology
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Summary:This review deals with the recent developments on the epigenetic effects of ethanol. A large body of data have come from studies in liver and in neuronal systems and involve post‐translational modifications in histones and methylations in DNA. Ethanol causes site selective acetylation, methylation, and phosphorylation in histone. With respect to methylations the methyl group donating system involving S‐adenosyl methionine appears to play a central role. There is contrasting effect of acetylation versus methylation on the same site of histone, as it relates to the transcriptional activation. Epigenetic memory also appears to correlate with liver pathology and Mallory body formation. Experimental evidence supports transcriptional regulation of genes in the CNS by DNA methylations. These studies are contributing towards a better understanding of a novel epigenetic regulation of gene expression in the context of alcohol. The critical steps and the enzymes (e.g., histone acetyltransferase, histone deacetylase, DNA methyltransferase) responsible for the epigenetic modifications are prime targets for intense investigation. The emerging data are also beginning to offer novel insight towards defining the molecular actions of ethanol and may contribute to potential therapeutic targets at the nucleosomal level. These epigenetic studies have opened up a new avenue of investigation in the alcohol field.
ISSN:0145-6008
1530-0277
DOI:10.1111/j.1530-0277.2008.00729.x