PRENATAL PROGRAMMING OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: THE ROLE OF EPIGENETIC MECHANISMS

The Human Genome Project, completed ten years ago, widely opened the door for the field of Epigenetics as a new venue to study the causes of human disease and to search for predictive biomarkers and therapeutic targets for a wide range of disorders. The field of behavioral and psychiatric epigenetics is still very young, but increasing evidence suggests that epigenetic mechanisms contribute to the development of neuropsychiatric disorders. The prenatal period is particularly vulnerable to epigenetic disruption, and it seems likely that adverse in utero environments can induce epigenetic dysregulation and predispose an individual to mental disease later in life. Emerging evidence from animal studies has shown that maternal exposure to drugs, stress, and toxicants can alter epigenetic gene programming in the brain and contribute to neurodevelopmental and behavioral deficits in the offspring. The evidence from human studies is more limited but is in agreement with animal data. Several human studies have shown that prenatal risk factors, such as maternal food deprivation and stressful life events, are associated with persistent epigenetic changes in genes that are linked to neurodevelopmental disorders and psychopathology. Although these studies support the hypothesis that epigenetic mechanisms may be involved in prenatal programming of psychopathology, a collaborative effort of basic, clinical and epidemiological research is needed to advance this field. Nevertheless, this field holds great promise to facilitate our understanding of environmental contribution to human mental disease and to reveal new predictive biomarkers as well as preventive and therapeutic approaches for various neuropsychiatric disorders.