Twin studies on the epigenetics of selected neurological disorders and carotid artery disease

Abstract

Abstract Chronic neurological and vascular diseases are key epidemiological issues and subjects of extensive clinical and translational research. The epigenetic background of multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and carotid artery atherosclerosis (CAS) is not completely understood. Classical twin studies yielded results indicating substantial genetic liability of MS and AD and heritability of CAS phenotypes. However, only part of the genetic contribution is explained by risk loci based on genome-wide association studies. Epigenetic effects could partly account for this discrepancy. Moreover, environmental factors causing epigenetic changes are also likely to influence the development of these conditions. Substantial research on the epigenetics of MS, AD and CAS has been conducted on twins, a population ideal to investigate epigenetics. This chapter reviews the results of twin studies assessing epigenetic influence on these neurological conditions and the results are compared to those yielded on non-twin samples. Furthermore, possible future therapeutic implications are discussed.