‘Epigenetic landscape’ is protective in normal aging, impaired in Alzheimer’s disease

Researchers profiled the epigenomic landscape of Alzheimer’s brains, specifically in one of the regions affected early in AD, the lateral temporal lobe. They compared these to both younger and elderly cognitively normal control subjects. The team described the genome-wide enrichment of a chemical modification of histone proteins that regulates the compaction of chromosomes in the nucleus. Changes along the genome in disease versus normal aging brains may signify places for future drug development. …read more