Epigenome editing reduces anxiety in mice

More than 15 million people worldwide struggle with alcohol use disorder, a chronic relapsing condition that can have serious consequences for a person's physical, emotional and mental heal.

Now, a May 4 study in Science Advances finds that editing epigenetic marks in noncoding, regulatory regions of the genome can reduce alcohol-seeking and anxiety behaviors in young alcoholic mi.

"This paper is fantastic," Elizabeth Heller, an addiction neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the study, told The Scienti.

Targeting the alcohol epigenome

Research has found that binge drinking during adolescence increases the likelihood of alcohol addiction, anxiety, depression, and a host of other debilitating mental health problems in adultho.

In previous work, the authors of the new study found that alcoholism during adolescence alters the epigenome, specifically in enhancer regions of the Arc gene (activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein), which amplifies Arc gene producti.

"Arc plays a very important role in the regulation of dendritic spines and synapse.

The team found that drinking alcohol early in life led to changes in a gene-enhancing region that led to reduced Arc expression in the amygdala, the brain's emotional processing center, in ra.

The researchers wanted to test whether they could reverse these changes using epigenome editi.

In one experiment, the researchers intermittently exposed some mice to alcohol between days 27 and 41 of their lives (roughly equivalent in age to people aged 10 to 1

After treatment, the researchers observed that Arc expression levels returned to their pre-drinking baseline leve.

"When we saw the effect on behavioral phenotype, that was an exciting time for .

"Epigenetics is a hot topic right now," says Elena Martin Garcia, a neuroscientist who studies food addiction at the University of Pompeau Fabra in Barcelo.

Pandey and colleagues acknowledge that the exact pathway by which epigenetic regulation of Arc affects addiction-related behavior remains a myste.

While much work remains to be done before CRISPR-based treatments are approved for use in humans, he pointed to hurdles such as the delivery of treatments and potential off-target effects of epigenetic treatmen.

She added that despite the development of potential treatments, "we need to remove the stigma [of addictio.