review
LIU Zhuo△ , YAO Wei-Xuan△ ,JIA Zhen-Jun
Progress in Physiological Sciences.
2021, 52(6):
407-414.
Relapse after withdrawal of drug addiction is still a serious medical problem worldwide. Detoxification treatment generally used at home and abroad can help addicts get rid of addictive drugs but there is a high risk of relapse. Therefore, figuring out the neural mechanisms of relapse and developing effective interventions are most important for treating drug addiction. In recent years, many studies reveal that addictive drugs cause changes in the epigenetic modifications in the nervous system. Epigenetic mechanisms have persistent effects on gene expression which can explain the duration of addictive behavior to some extent.Moreover,interventions in epigenetic mechanisms can regulate expression of genes relevant to the addiction and alter addictive behavior,indicating epigenetic manipulation is an effective therapeutic method for drug addiction and relapse.The epigenetic regulationon gene expression includes histone modifications, DNA methylation and expression of noncoding RNAs.This work reviewed the latest research on the epigenetic regulation of addictive behavior, especially relapse, and discussed epigenetic treatment approaches for drug addiction, hopefully providing theoretical reference for clinically treating drug addiction and preventing relapse through epigenetic manipulation