epigenetics and brain injury

[crazyladybutterfly]

Head injuries can harm hundreds of genes in the brain in a way that increases people’s risk for a wide range of neurological and psychiatric disorders, UCLA life scientists report.

The researchers identified for the first time master genes that they believe control hundreds of other genes which are linked to Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, stroke, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, depression, schizophrenia and other disorders.

Knowing what the master genes are could give scientists targets for new pharmaceuticals to treat brain diseases. Eventually, scientists might even be able to learn how to re-modify damaged genes to reduce the risk for diseases, and the finding could help researchers identify chemical compounds and foods that fight disease by repairing those genes.

That process can happen in a couple of ways, said Yang, who is a member of UCLA’s Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences. One is that the injury can ultimately lead the genes to produce proteins of irregular forms. Another is to change the number of expressed copies of a gene in each cell. Either change can prevent a gene from working properly. If a gene turns into the wrong form of protein, it could lead to Alzheimer’s disease, for example.

https://www.alnmag.com/news/2017/03/...location%3dtop

[Al-Meksiki]

The prospect of potentially finally having a cure for Schizoprenia is pretty amazing to me.

My understanding is that, due to the nature of the disease, its basically impossible to ever "cure", but epigenetic therapy and psychoactive medication could manage the illness like never before, and improve the lives of millions of people.

[EL_BARBARO]

Más ganancias para las compañías farmacéuticas / More benefits for pharma companies.