Alzheimer’s disease (AD) represents a devastating progressive neurodegenerative disease with a complex pathophysiology, affecting millions of people worldwide. Recent epigenome‐wide association studies suggest a key role for epigenetic mechanisms in its development and course. Despite the fact that current evidence on the role of epigenetic dysregulation in aging and AD is convincing, the pioneering field of neuroepigenetics is still facing many challenges that need to be addressed to fundamentally increase our understanding about the underlying mechanisms of this neurodegenerative disorder. This perspective paper describes the current state of play for epigenetic research into AD and discusses how new methodological advances in the field of epigenetics and related data science disciplines could further spur the development of novel therapeutic agents and biomarker assays.

中文翻译：

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阿尔茨海默病的表观基因组关联研究；成就和挑战。


阿尔茨海默病 (AD) 是一种破坏性的进行性神经退行性疾病，具有复杂的病理生理学，影响着全世界数百万人。最近的全表观基因组关联研究表明表观遗传机制在其发展和过程中发挥着关键作用。尽管目前关于表观遗传失调在衰老和 AD 中的作用的证据令人信服，但神经表观遗传学这一前沿领域仍然面临着许多挑战，需要解决这些挑战，以从根本上增进我们对这种神经退行性疾病潜在机制的理解。这篇前瞻性论文描述了 AD 表观遗传学研究的现状，并讨论了表观遗传学和相关数据科学学科领域的新方法学进展如何进一步促进新型治疗药物和生物标志物检测的发展。