Epigenetic Modifications Linked to T2D, the Heritability Gap, and Potential Therapeutic Targets

With the pandemic of type 2 diabetes (T2D), there is an ever-increasing need to fully understand the underlying mechanisms of the disease. Type 2 diabetes shows a high heritability risk (25-80%); however, genes account only for 10% of this risk. From all the risk factors for diabetes, epigenetic mechanisms have the highest statistical scoring in explaining the disease. A multitude of organ-specific epigenomic changes have been linked to type 2 diabetes. Nutritional influences, mainly in the early life, physical activity level, environmental toxins act as epigenetic factors and the recognized epigenetic changes can represent a therapeutical target, new drugs being currently in development for this application. Our current review focuses on the most common epigenetic modifications linked to type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance, the potentially emerging epigenetic-related interventions and pharmacoepigenetic knowledge.