How Do Epigenetics Influence Human Genes and Help in Curing Disease?

Human genes play a significant role in maintaining the body’s health, but so do the persons’ behaviors and environments, like, diet and physical activities.

Epigenetics is the study of how the environment and behavior of the person can change the way a gene works. Epigenetics changes do not affect the DNA sequence, but they are responsible for changing the way of body read the sequence of the DNA. Hence the health and development of the human body are shaped by both genes and the ’environment.

Gene expression means when and how often the proteins are formed from the instructions of the genes. While on the other hand, genetic changes can change which proteins are made. Epigenetic changes influence gene expression for turning the genes on and off. Since human behaviors and environments are the reason for epigenetic changes, it becomes easy to notice the relationship between human genes and the human environment and behaviors.

Working of Epigenetic:

There are different ways in which epigenetic changes impact gene expressions. The kinds of epigenetic changes are:

• Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) methylation: It refers to the process of adding a methyl group to the person’s DNA. This chemical group is added especially in those locations of the DNA where nucleotide is present with guanine nucleotide, which is merged by phosphate; it is known as CpG sites. This methyl group can be released by the method known as demethylation. Typically, genes are turned on by methylation and are turned off by demethylation. It is performed to prevent certain types of genes from getting expressed.
• Histone modification: Histones are the proteins that are the primary chromatin component. It works as a spool that is wrapped around the DNA for controlling the accessibility by the proteins to read the genes. Around histones, a few genes are covered and turned off, while some of them are not covered and turned on. The group of the chemical can be removed or added from histones for on and off the wrapped genes.
• Noncoding ribonucleic acid (RNA): The instructions of the DNA are used for the making of non-coding and coding RNA. The use of the coding RNA is for making proteins and, the non-coding RNA is for controlling the gene expressions by connecting them to coding RNA. Non-coding RNA can also recruit proteins to change histones for turning genes on and off.

Epigenetics and Cancer:

There are different mutants that is responsible for the development of cancer cells in the human body. Similarly, few epigenetic changes are responsible for increasing the cancer risk in the body.

For example, the presence of the mutation in the BRCA1 gene can prevent them from working correctly and increase the chance of a person getting cancer such as breast cancer. Similarly, if there is an increase in DNA methylation, it can cause a decrease of the BRCA1 gene, which can raise the chance of getting cancers.

Different cancers may look similar but have different patterns of DNA methylation. Epigenetics can help in determining the cancer type person is suffering from and can also help in detecting cancers in the earlier stages. Alone epigenetic cannot analyze cancer, and before the screening test, confirmations of the cancers are needed.

Market Overview of Epigenetic:

As per the BIS Research report, the value of the global epigenetics market was $2,434.6 million in 2020, and is projected to reach $14,311.1 million by 2031. The growth of the epigenetics market is supposed to be driven by decreasing price of sequencing, the global increase of the application for sequencing, and improvements in the products.

However, there are a few challenges in the growth of the market, like costly epigenetics instruments and the shortage of professional and skilled persons in epigenetic research.

As per the region, North America dominates the epigenetic market with the highest shares, owing to advance healthcare structure, rise in per capita income, and improvised refund policies in the area. The Asia-Pacific is projected to grow at the quickest CAGR during 2021–2031.

Conclusion:

There are different diseases found in the human body, which are difficult to be treated. Among those, cancer is one of those diseased that is high in risk if not found in the early stage. So epigenetic can help detect such diseases in the early stage. Many healthcare experts are projecting that the epigenetic market is to witness the highest growth at a CAGR of 17.11% between 2021–2023.