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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Apr 23.
Published in final edited form as: Prog Neurobiol. 2015 Jun 11;131:21–64. doi: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2015.05.002

Table 4.

Epigenetic dysregulation in Alzheimer’s disease: DNA (de)methylation.

Gene Regulation Epigenetic modification Observed in Sample size Approach Methods Reference

APP Methylation (APP gene promoter region) AD patients 16

1
Targeted
(18 loci)
Targeted
(1 locus)
BS

Southern Blot
Tohgi et al., 1999

West et al., 1995
Methylation (CpG sites in and
close to the promoter region)
AD patients AD Stages I to II (n=17),
AD Stages III to IV (n=15),
AD Stages V to VI (n=12)
Targeted
(6 loci)
BS Barrachina and Ferrer,
2009, Fuso et al., 2005
PS Methylation (CpG sites in and
close to the promoter region)
SK-N-SH and
SK-N-BE cell lines
- Targeted
(5 loci)
HPLC/Nucleic
acid analysis
Fuso et al., 2005
BACE Methylation (CpG sites in and
close to the promoter region)
SK-N-SH and
SK-N-BE cell lines
- Targeted
(5 loci)
HPLC/Nucleic
acid analysis
Expression due to folate
deptivation-induced global
DNA hypomethylation
SK-N-SH and
SK-N-BE cell lines
- Targeted
(5 loci)
HPLC/Nucleic
acid analysis
PS1 Methylation (promoter region) AD patients 24 Targeted
(12 loci)
BS Wang et al., 2008b
Expression due to folate
deptivation -induced global
DNA hypomethylation
SK-N-SH and
SK-N-BE cell lines
- Targeted
(5 loci)
HPLC/Nucleic
acid analysis
Fuso et al., 2005
APOE Methylation (promoter
region)
AD patients 24 Targeted
(12 loci)
BS, MALDI Wang et al., 2008b
MTHFR Methylation (promoter
region)
AD patients
(prefrontal cortex,
peripheral
lymphocytes)
24 Targeted
(12 loci)
BS
Methylation
DNMT1 Methylation (promoter
region)
AD patients 24 Targeted
(12 loci)
BS
PP2A Inhibition of methylation due
to increase of Hγ levels
N2a cells, AD
mouse model
(APP/PS1)
-, N.S. Targeted
(1 locus)
IHC Zhou et al., 2008
SORBS3
S100A2

Methylation AD patients 18 Targeted
(50 loci)
BS, MS-PCR Siegmund et al., 2007
NEP Methylation CEC cell line
exposed to Aβ
- Targeted
(1 locus)
MS-PCR Chen et al., 2009
SP1 Methylation (activator
binding site)
Human
(cerebral cortex)
16 Targeted
(18 loci)
BS Tohgi et al., 1999
GCF Methylation (repressor
binding site)
Human
(cerebral cortex)
16 Targeted
(18 loci)
BS Tohgi et al., 1999
APOE Methylation (CpG island
located at the 3’ end)
AD patients
(postmortem)
24 Targeted
(12 loci)
BS Wang et al., 2008b
COX-2 Methylation (promoter
region)
AD patients
(frontal cortex)
10 Targeted
(8 loci)
Promoter
region-specific
CpG methylation
assay
Rao et al., 2012
NF-kB Methylation (promoter
region)
BDNF Methylation (promoter
region)
CREB Methylation (promoter region)
LINE-1 Methylation AD patients (blood) 43 Targeted
(3 loci)
BS, PCR,
pyrosequencing
Bollati et al., 2011
ANK1 ↑↑ Methylation AD patients (EC, superior
temporal cortex, PFC)
62, 122, 144 Genome-wide 450K BeadChip Lunnon et al., 2014
Protein/(hydroxy)
methylated base
Regulation Modification in Observed in Sample size Methods Reference

5-hmC Expression AD mouse model (APP/PS1; hippocampus)
AD patients (EC, cerebellum)
10
10
IHC
IHC
Chouliaras et al., 2013a
Chouliaras et al., 2013a
5-mC, 5-hmC AD patients (MGF, MTG, hippocampus) 7 late-stage AD IHC Bradley-Whitman and
5 preclinical AD Lovell, 2013
13 MGF 29 MTG IHC Coppieters et al., 2014
5-fC, 5-caC AD patients (hippocampus) 7 late-stage AD IHC Bradley-Whitman and
5 preclinical AD Lovell, 2013
DNMT3a AD mouse model (APP/PS1; hippocampus) 10 IHC Chouliaras et al., 2013a
AD patients 10 IHC Chouliaras et al., 2013a
DNMT3a2 Mice (12 months old) 15 IHC Oliveira et al., 2012
TET1 AD patients (hippocampus) 7 late-stage AD IHC Bradley-Whitman and
5 preclinical AD Lovell, 2013

indicates increased expression levels,

indicates decreased expression levels, and

indicates altered expression, not further specified.

Abbreviations: 450K BeadChip, Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation 450K BeadChip; 5-caC, 5-carboxylcytosine; 5-fC, 5-formylcytosine; 5-hmC, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine; 5-mC, 5-methylcytosine; AD, Alzheimer’s disease; APOE, apolipoprotein E; APP, amyloid β precursor protein; BACE, β-secretase; BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor; CEC, cerebral endothelial cell, COX-2, cyclooxygenase-2; CpG, cytosine-phosphate-guanine; CREB, cyclic adenosine monophosphate response element-bindingprotein; DNMT, DNA methyltransferase; EC, entorhinal cortex; GCF, granulocyte chemotactic factor; LINE-1,longinterspersed element 1; ANK1,ankyrin 1; MALDI, matrix-assisted laserdesorption/ionization; MFG, middle frontal gyrus; MTG, middle temporal gyrus; MTHFR, 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase; NEP, neprilysin; NF-κB, nuclear transcription factor kappa B; PP2A, protein phosphatase 2A; PS, presenilin; S100A2, S100 calcium-binding protein A2; SORBS3, sorbin and v-src avian sarcoma (Schmidt-Ruppin A-2) viral oncogene homolog homology 3 domain containing3; SP1, specificity factor 1; TET1, ten-eleven translocation 1; SK-N-SH, SK-N-BE, human neuroblastoma cell lines; N2A, neuro-2a cell line; CEC, circulating endothelial cells; N.S., not specified; BS, bisulfite sequencing; HPLC: high-performance liquid chromatography; IHC, immunohistochemistry; MS-PCR: methylation specific-PCR.