Abstract
Background Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a severe psychiatric disorder with a strong heritability (about 0.6). There are no drug treatments available for AN. Interestingly, one third of patients evolved to remitters after hospitalizations and multiple adapted cares but, to date, there are no biological markers that could help to propose a prognostic to this remission. Even the genetic component to AN, there is no major gene that has been identified in AN. The mechanisms of epigenetic regulations could play a major role in the involvement in AN. We and other groups have recently performed a whole-genome DNA methylation study (methylome) in AN. We found that the differentially methylated CpG sites are located around genes involved in biological processes in link with embryonic morphogenesis, brain development and its plasticity, in particular adhesion and axon guidance. In the present study, we have screened a novel independent group of 40 AN patients. Furthermore, we have done a follow-up during more than one year, to compare the methylation profiles between the patients currently with AN and subjects that evolve to the remission. Methods Our objective is to characterize a specific methylome in AN patients that convert to remitters in the goal to identify prognostic epigenetic signatures for AN. Of the 40 AN patients, 18 evolved to the remission after one year of follow-up. The blood samples of the subjects were collected at the 2 times of the follow-up. Methylations of the DNA were measured by using the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip technology and analyzed according to the Chip Analysis Methylation Pipeline (ChAMP). Results Comparisons of AN patients to controls showed similar profiles of methylation has previously found with other patients, including the same biological processes as previously identified. We are now comparing the difference of methylation between the 18 remitters and the 18 current AN. Discussion We expect to characterize specific methylation signatures of the prognostic of the AN remission.
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