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The Role of Epigenetics in Addiction: Clinical Overview and Recent Updates

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Psychiatric Disorders

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2011))

Abstract

Addiction is an international public health problem. It is a polygenic disorder best understood by accounting for the interplay between genetic and environmental factors. A recent way of perceiving this interaction is through epigenetics, which help grasp the neurobiological changes that occur in addiction and explain its relapsing-remitting nature. It is now known that every cell has a different way of expressing its phenotype, despite a universal DNA sequence. This is particularly true in the central nervous system where environmental factors influence this expression. Three major epigenetic processes have been found to participate in the perpetuation of addiction by changing the state of the chromatin and the degree of gene transcription: histone acetylation and methylation, DNA methylation, and noncoding RNAs. In the animal model literature, substantial evidence exists about the role of these epigenetic changes in the different phases of substance use disorders. This book chapter is a non-systematic literature review of the recent publications tackling the topic of epigenetics in addiction. Even though this evidence remains scarce and relatively poorly systematized, it is a promising foundation for future research of molecules that target specific brain regions and their functions to address core behavioral changes seen in addiction.

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Author notes

  1. Antoine Beayno, Samer El Hayek, and Paul Noufi contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Antoine Beayno, Samer El Hayek, Paul Noufi & Wael Shamseddeen

  2. Faculty of Pedagogy, Lebanese University, New Rawda, Lebanon

    Yara Tarabay

  3. Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences, Notre Dame University, Louaize, Lebanon

    Yara Tarabay

  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

    Wael Shamseddeen

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  1. Antoine Beayno
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  2. Samer El Hayek
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  3. Paul Noufi
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  4. Yara Tarabay
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  5. Wael Shamseddeen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wael Shamseddeen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Firas H. Kobeissy

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Beayno, A., El Hayek, S., Noufi, P., Tarabay, Y., Shamseddeen, W. (2019). The Role of Epigenetics in Addiction: Clinical Overview and Recent Updates. In: Kobeissy, F. (eds) Psychiatric Disorders. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2011. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9554-7_35

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