OO016 - MITOCHONDRIAL DNA METHYLATION LEVELS ARE ALTERED IN INDIVIDUALS WITH MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT (ID 1584)
Abstract
Aims
Increasing evidence is showing that alterations in mitochondrial epigenetics mechanisms could be involved in the etiology of several human disorders, including specific neurodegenerative diseases. In this regard, recently we observed altered methylation levels of the mitochondrial displacement loop (D-loop) region in peripheral blood of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients, but not in individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Regarding Alzheimer’s disease, altered D-loop methylation has been found in brain of patients with AD-related pathology, and a dynamic pattern during the progression of the disease was observed in brain of transgenic AD mice. Moreover, we observed a significant 25% reduction of D-loop methylation levels in peripheral blood of late-onset AD patients when compared to control subjects. However, until now no investigations in peripheral blood of patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) has been performed.
Methods
In the current study D-loop methylation levels have been evaluated by means of the Methylation-Sensitive High Resolution Melting in peripheral blood of 18 AD patients, 14 MCI individuals and 105 control subjects. All AD and MCI subjects received a biomarker-based diagnosis.
Results
We observed that D-loop methylation levels were significantly higher in MCI individuals when compared to both AD patients and controls.
Conclusions
Current results, together with our previous data, suggest that D-loop methylation levels change during the progression of AD. More interestingly, D-loop methylation alterations have been detected in peripheral blood, suggesting that further studies deserve to be performed in order to validate the usefulness of D-loop methylation analysis as a peripheral biomarker for early detection and diagnosis of AD.
