Title:Prader-Willi Syndrome: Molecular Mechanism and Epigenetic Therapy
Volume: 20
Issue: 1
关键词:
普瑞德威利综合征
摘要: Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is an imprinted neurodevelopmental disease characterized by
cognitive impairments, developmental delay, hyperphagia, obesity, and sleep abnormalities. It is
caused by a lack of expression of the paternally active genes in the PWS imprinting center on chromosome
15 (15q11.2-q13). Owing to the imprinted gene regulation, the same genes in the maternal
chromosome, 15q11-q13, are intact in structure but repressed at the transcriptional level because of the
epigenetic mechanism. The specific molecular defect underlying PWS provides an opportunity to explore
epigenetic therapy to reactivate the expression of repressed PWS genes inherited from the maternal
chromosome. The purpose of this review is to summarize the main advances in the molecular
study of PWS and discuss current and future perspectives on the development of CRISPR/Cas9-
mediated epigenome editing in the epigenetic therapy of PWS. Twelve studies on the molecular
mechanism or epigenetic therapy of PWS were included in the review. Although our understanding of
the molecular basis of PWS has changed fundamentally, there has been a little progress in the epigenetic
therapy of PWS that targets its underlying genetic defects.