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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.