• April 26, 2024

Since about a decade ago, epigenetics has had great contributions to world science, since it has a great influence in areas such as immunology , the biology of development, Cancer and the neurosciences. But what is epigenetics?

It is the set of interactions between DNA and the proteins that form chromatin, that is, that compact structure that is inside the nucleus mobile and that when compacting it allows the turning on and off of the genes.

The word comes from the Greek epi that means in or about, that is, it is above the genetics.

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Part of us ...

Félix Recillas Targa, from the Cellular Physiology Institute of the UNAM, explained that if we imagine the British encyclopedia, the genes it would be the letters, but the epigenetics would be the points, the commas and the chapters that would allow us to understand it.

This discipline is what has allowed us to explain why even in identical twins one can develop a disease and the other can not, because even being close or separated, the environment makes them different.

The researcher said that it is an area that is increasingly known and therefore becomes complex. There are many parameters that influence, for example, how the genes turn on or off, what molecular switches allow this, the organization of the genome within the cell nucleus , even those extracellular signals that intervene such as nutrients, exposure to light or even the social environment.

"It's the social environment: what he ate, what he was exposed to; everything influences that on and off of genes that can even lead to differentiating between a healthy person and one that has disease, even if they are identical genetically

"I could almost say that in everything, sooner or later, there is a link to epigenetics."

For example, he added, epigenetic alterations also occur in cancer, that is, where the function of the genes depends not only on the DNA sequence as such, but also on the level mobile, is in contact with other substances. This interaction determines that the genes are active or inactive.

In cancer, epigenetic alterations depend on their function and are reversible, which means that a gene, although structurally normal, is off or does not work due to this alteration.

The two changes that occur in this pathology are DNA methylation (which regulates the silencing of genes) and deacetylation of histones, which are responsible for the quenching of genes.

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