Fourteen years after it unveiled the map of the human genome, which marked a before and after for the global genetic research, scientists revealed the map of the epigenome, ie machinery that activates and deactivates genes . that determine the characteristics of each person
To explain more clearly the concept, Manuel Esteller, one of the fathers of the discipline, similes nearby states: “We could say that the genome is hardware (tangible than one computer or device) and the epigenome, software, ie programming the computer, “he told El Mundo of Spain.
If we were talking about an orchestra, instruments would be the components of DNA, while the musicians would epigenetic marks that indicate when to play, how intensely and when. The genome is static while the epigenome is dynamic, and is instrumental in the establishment of cell functions, health and disease development.
That is, the epigenome consists of internal and external biochemical elements that move from environmental factors, and even cultural and emotional for everyone
. For example: we know that someone can have in their genome predisposition lung cancer, but this one is lit or active substances and elements contained in cigarettes.
In that vein campaigns that promote a culture of non-consumption diffuse snuff, which shows that epigenetics is not only related to chemical factors, but also to environmental and cultural.
Today, scientists are increasingly seeking relationships, in order to develop drugs that are capable of modulating the activity of epigenome and promote changes in attitudes and behaviors to prevent disease and improve well-being.
Another example is that of those who despite having in their genetic code predisposes to adult diabetes do not develop to the same extent and severity of others because modulate the expression of these genes with healthy habits such as good diet and exercise.
The results of years of work on this topic were published in 24 studies published in several magazines of Nature group; authors are hundreds of scientists linked to the Map Epigenome, developed by the National Institutes of Health, United States, between 2008 and 2014, with an investment of $ 240 million program.
Personalized Medicine
As it becomes more common sequencing the genome of each person, to infer, among other things, the risk of this contract certain diseases, cobra important task to discern how the epigenome influence that risk (it increases or decreases) as well as other aspects of health.
With this perspective enters the field of medicine personalized and advances in the possibility of knowledge, from the birth of a person, what diseases can have and what risk factors would determine its expression.
By now, many laboratories have been commissioned to study the epigenome of many tumors, in the case of childhood leukemia, not only to identify those who may suffer them, but the type of drugs that may be useful to them and to define who respond to chemotherapy.
WITH REUTERS AND THE WORLD OF SPAIN
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