In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we caught up with Paula Desplats from the University of California San Diego to talk about her work on DNA Methylation Alterations in Neurodegenerative Diseases.

The laboratory of Paula desalts focuses on decoding the role of epigenetic mechanisms, like DNA methylation, on the onset and progression of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. In doing so, on of the goals of the Desplats team is to develop a biomarker panel based on quantification of DNA methylation of selected genes that can discriminate Parkison's Disease patients from healthy subjects in a simple blood test. More recently, the team also focused on the role of the circadian rhythm on neurodegenerative diseases and finding a way how interventions can help in managing the disease.

References

• Masliah, E., Dumaop, W., Galasko, D., & Desplats, P. (2013). Distinctive patterns of DNA methylation associated with Parkinson disease: identification of concordant epigenetic changes in brain and peripheral blood leukocytes. Epigenetics, 8(10), 1030–1038. https://doi.org/10.4161/epi.25865

• Cronin, P., McCarthy, M. J., Lim, A., Salmon, D. P., Galasko, D., Masliah, E., De Jager, P. L., Bennett, D. A., & Desplats, P. (2017). Circadian alterations during early stages of Alzheimer's disease are associated with aberrant cycles of DNA methylation in BMAL1. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 13(6), 689–700. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2016.10.003

• Henderson-Smith, A., Fisch, K. M., Hua, J., Liu, G., Ricciardelli, E., Jepsen, K., Huentelman, M., Stalberg, G., Edland, S. D., Scherzer, C. R., Dunckley, T., & Desplats, P. (2019). DNA methylation changes associated with Parkinson's disease progression: outcomes from the first longitudinal genome-wide methylation analysis in blood. Epigenetics, 14(4), 365–382. https://doi.org/10.1080/15592294.2019.1588682

• Nasamran, C. A., Sachan, A., Mott, J., Kuras, Y. I., Scherzer, C. R., Study, H. B., Ricciardelli, E., Jepsen, K., Edland, S. D., Fisch, K. M., & Desplats, P. (2021). Differential blood DNA methylation across Lewy body dementias. Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 13(1), e12156. https://doi.org/10.1002/dad2.12156

   

Related Episodes

• Development of Integrative Machine Learning Tools for Neurodegenerative Diseases (Enrico Glaab)

• The Role of DNA Methylation in Epilepsy (Katja Kobow)

• CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, and Disease (Sir Adrian Bird)

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