Looking above but not beyond the genome for therapeutics in neurology and psychiatry

Abstract

We welcome you to a special issue of Neurotherapeutics that highlights much of the exciting new thinking behind a burgeoning and therapeutically relevant topic—epigenetic proteins in psychiatric and neurological disease. It is now well established that expression of single genes or gene cassettes is determined by the interplay between transcription factors and epigenetic modulators. Epigenetics literally means “above the genome” and is defined by modifications of DNA, as well as chromatin that ultimately affect gene expression. Accordingly, epigenetic markers can be considered similar to punctuation marks in the English language. They define the beginning and the end of a gene; they structure the chromosomes; and they alter how the information is read, either activating or silencing transcription.