Journal
IMMUNOLOGICAL REVIEWS
Volume 311, Issue 1, Pages 112-129Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/imr.13079
Keywords
acetylation; central nervous system; epigenetics; histone; infection; methylation
Categories
Funding
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke [R01 NS107369]
- Neuroimmunology of Disease Training [5T32NS105594]
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Epigenetics focuses on adaptable transcriptional regulation, influencing cell identity and function. During CNS infection, epigenetic mechanisms play a significant role in controlling immune cell maturation and antimicrobial properties. Researchers use epigenetic marks to organize immune cell populations' activation states and inflammatory processes in response to CNS infection.
Epigenetics involves the study of various modes of adaptable transcriptional regulation, contributing to cell identity, characteristics, and function. During central nervous system (CNS) infection, epigenetic mechanisms can exert pronounced control over the maturation and antimicrobial properties of nearly every immune cell type. Epigenetics is a relatively new field, with the first mention of these marks proposed only a half-century ago and a substantial body of immunological epigenetic research emerging only in the last few decades. Here, we review the best-characterized epigenetic marks and their functions as well as illustrate how various immune cell populations responding to CNS infection utilize these marks to organize their activation state and inflammatory processes. We also discuss the metabolic and clinical implications of epigenetic marks and the rapidly expanding set of tools available to researchers that are enabling elucidation of increasingly detailed genetic regulatory pathways. These considerations paint an intricate picture of inflammatory regulation, where epigenetic marks influence genetic, signaling, and environmental elements to orchestrate a tailored immunological response to the threat at hand, cementing epigenetics as an important player in immunity.
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