Epigenetic Modifications by Estrogen and Androgen in Alzheimer's Disease

A bibliometric and visual analysis of epigenetic research publications for Alzheimer's disease (2013-2023)

Background

Currently, the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is progressively rising, particularly in developed nations. There is an escalating focus on the onset and progression of AD. A mounting body of research indicates that epigenetics significantly contributes to AD and holds substantial promise as a novel therapeutic target for its treatment.

Objective

The objective of this article is to present the AD areas of research interest, comprehend the contextual framework of the subject research, and investigate the prospective direction for future research development.

Methods

ln Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC), we searched documents by specific subject terms and their corresponding free words. VOSviewer, CiteSpace and Scimago Graphica were used to perform statistical analysis on measurement metrics such as the number of published papers, national cooperative networks, publishing countries, institutions, authors, co-cited journals, keywords, and visualize networks of related content elements.

Results

We selected 1,530 articles from WOSCC from January 2013 to June 2023 about epigenetics of AD. Based on visual analysis, we could get that China and United States were the countries with the most research in this field. Bennett DA was the most contributed and prestigious scientist. The top 3 cited journals were Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, Neurobiology of Aging and Molecular Neurobiology. According to the analysis of keywords and the frequency of citations, ncRNAs, transcription factor, genome, histone modification, blood DNA methylation, acetylation, biomarkers were hot research directions in AD today.

Conclusion

According to bibliometric analysis, epigenetic research in AD was a promising research direction, and epigenetics had the potential to be used as AD biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

Emerging roles of epigenetics in lead-induced neurotoxicity

Lead is a common environmental heavy metal contaminant. Humans are highly susceptible to lead accumulation in the body, which causes nervous system damage and leads to a variety of nervous system diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and autism spectrum disorder. Recent research has focused on the mechanisms of lead-induced neurotoxicity at multiple levels, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, and non-coding RNAs, which are involved in various lead-induced nervous system diseases. We reviewed the latest articles and summarised the emerging roles of DNA methylation, histone modification, and non-coding RNAs in lead-induced neurotoxicity. Our summary provides a theoretical basis and directions for future research on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of lead-induced neurological diseases.