Review
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Epigenetic Alterations in Pediatric Sleep Apnea
Version 1
: Received: 23 July 2021 / Approved: 27 July 2021 / Online: 27 July 2021 (11:45:08 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Cheung, E.C.; Kay, M.W.; Schunke, K.J. Epigenetic Alterations in Pediatric Sleep Apnea. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22, 9523. Cheung, E.C.; Kay, M.W.; Schunke, K.J. Epigenetic Alterations in Pediatric Sleep Apnea. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22, 9523.
Abstract
Pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has significant negative effects on health and behavior in childhood including depression, failure to thrive, neurocognitive impairment, and behavioral issues. It is strongly associated with an increased risk for chronic adult disease such as obesity and diabetes, accelerated atherosclerosis, and endothelial dysfunction. Accumulating evidence suggests that adult-onset non-communicable diseases may originate from early life through a process by which an insult applied at a critical developmental window causes long-term effects on the structure or function of an organism. Recently, much attention has been paid to the role of epigenetic mechanisms in the pathogenesis of adult disease susceptibility. Epigenetic mechanisms that influence adaptive variability include histone modifications, non-coding RNAs, and DNA methylation. This review will highlight what is currently known about the phenotypic associations of epigenetic modifications in pediatric OSA and will emphasize the importance of epigenetic changes as both modulators of chronic disease and potential therapeutic targets.
Keywords
epigenetic mechanisms of disease; fetal programming; obstructive sleep apnea; DNA methylation; histone modifications; chronic disease
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Anatomy and Physiology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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