Everyone knows genetics is the study of how traits such as hair color, eye color and risk for disease are passed down from parent to child. A child inherits genes from each biological parent, and those genes then cause specific traits.
Genes are made of DNA, which is basically a type of genetic instruction. Those instructions control the chemical reaction of life, turning on and off during development and in response to environmental changes, such as metabolism and infection.
Got it? Don’t worry, it can be pretty complicated stuff. But now let’s throw another term into the mix: Epigenetics. That’s what controls those genes.
Epigenetics is an emerging field, with scientists still trying to figure out how it all works. Epigenetics is everywhere, from what you eat, to how you exercise and where you live, and it can all cause chemical modifications around the genes that will turn on or off over time.
What scientists do know about epigenetics is that something triggers the genes to switch on and off. Think of it as a genetic light switch for your DNA, with different combinations being turned on or off to make each person unique. One epigenetics combination might cause someone to have blonde hair but dark skin. Another combination might make someone hate the taste of vegetables, or affect how one acts in social situations.
Sometimes the genes can be switched away from a normal or healthy state—that’s what can cause diseases such as cancer or Alzheimer’s.
What’s intriguing about the study of epigenetics is the idea that environmental aspects, or even an individual’s lifestyle, could influence how genes are turned on and off.
A recent study in Sweden, for example, found that tea—but not coffee—consumption in women leads to epigenetic changes in genes that are known to interact with cancer and estrogen metabolism. But the study, published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics, says further research is needed to understand how the gene changes could affect one’s health.
Better understanding of epigenetics, researchers say, could mean huge advances for the medical community. If you could turn genes on and off at will, keeping the good and getting rid of the bad, could it mean a cure for cancer? Could it slow down aging? Stop obesity? Improve memory?
There are, in fact, some epigenetic drugs being developed to treat different types of cancer. Called DNMT inhibitors, these drugs have been shown to arrest tumor growth. Last year in the United Kingdom, one clinical trial of a DNMT inhibitor sought to see if the drug could stop bladder cancers from developing a resistance to chemotherapy.
A team of researchers in Korea has found that an essential oil extracted from the bark of cypress trees has anti-infective properties and may fight against tumor growth.
Treating the epigenome doesn’t necessarily mean drugs, according to one researcher. Dr. Alfredo Galvez, a former research scientist at the Center of Excellence in Nutritional Genomics and research member of the UC Davis Cancer Center, and now the Chief Science Officer of SL Tech, Inc., a nutritional epigenetics company, says optimal nutrition can help.
Galvez is credited with discovering a soy protein called lunasin that has been studied for its anti-cancer effects as well as for lowering cholesterol. First identified in soybeans, lunasin was later found to be present in barley, triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye) and oats. It’s since been made into nutritional supplements that some people have taken and claimed to have experienced huge benefits. (Galvez also is the chief science officer for Reliv International, a nutritional supplement company.)
One Massachusetts man says lunasin turned around his ALS. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive muscle-wasting disease that usually is fatal within a few years.
Last year, a Duke University neurologist began a study of lunasin supplements in ALS patients. That study is still ongoing, and the supplement is not regulated by the FDA.
According to Galvez, the whole basis of biomedical research for the past 50 years has been that age-related chronic diseases are based on genetic defects. Part of the rationale for sequencing the human genome, he says, was to look for those genes associated with chronic diseases.
But Galvez says the packaging of DNA itself might have more of a contributing factor. How do you control the genes? How is the environment responsible? Can diet and the chemicals one ingests make a difference?
“What goes wrong is the regulation of the genes,” Galvez says. “We have to address the underlying cause—the disruption of the genome. Controlling gene expressions is really the key to controlling age-related conditions. It’s not genetic mutations that are causing disease malformation, it’s epigenetic changes.”
In Galvez’s mind, it’s the interaction between genetics and epigenetics that’s the key. Ideally, he sees something like lunasin being used in conjunction with drugs to treat some diseases.
And lunasin is just one thing in the environment that can affect genes, Galvez notes.
“It’s an exciting time for me as a scientist,” he says. “Seeing the results that support the mechanism is exciting. But there are a lot more studies to be done.”