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Epigenetics: Strategies for Prevention Research

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Health Impacts of Developmental Exposure to Environmental Chemicals

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Abstract

Being etiologically positioned between the genome and the environment, epigenetic markers (e.g., DNA methylation) represent the cumulative memory of genetic susceptibility and environmental exposures. Hence, the premise of epigenetics is that it can serve as a biomarker of the interplay between genetic predisposition and current and past environmental exposures. Such biomarkers can identify at-risk subgroups and related past and current exposures, supportive in devising mitigating and preventive strategies. As explained in this chapter, exposures to environmental chemicals result in epigenetic modifications that, conditional on genetic susceptibilities, mediate exposure effects on disease development. However, to gain better insights on the link between environmental exposures, epigenetic modifications, and disease mechanisms, researchers need to develop and incorporate epidemiologic methods and strategies that can explain how epigenetics might mediate the influence of environmental exposures on disease development. Once causal and molecular pathways are elucidated, epigenetic markers will serve as diagnostic and therapeutic targets facilitating the vision of personalized precision medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA

    Wilfried Karmaus & Nandini Mukherjee

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Kuwait City, Kuwait

    Ali H. Ziyab

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  1. Wilfried Karmaus
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  2. Ali H. Ziyab
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Correspondence to Wilfried Karmaus .

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  1. Center for Environmental and Health Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

    Reiko Kishi

  2. Department of Environmental Health Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Philippe Grandjean

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Karmaus, W., Ziyab, A.H., Mukherjee, N. (2020). Epigenetics: Strategies for Prevention Research. In: Kishi, R., Grandjean, P. (eds) Health Impacts of Developmental Exposure to Environmental Chemicals. Current Topics in Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0520-1_20

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