ESOC 2025 | Studying epigenetics to develop new treatments for stroke: challenges and advances
Cristina Gallego-Fabrega, PhD, Sant Pau Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain, comments on the challenges of studying epigenetics to potentially develop new treatments for stroke. She underscores the challenge of determining whether epigenomic changes are a cause or consequence of stroke. However, with the availability of epigenetic drugs, the research landscape has become more accessible, making it easier to develop new therapies. This interview took place at the 11th European Stroke Organisation Conference (ESOC) in Helsinki, Finland.
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Transcript
So from my point of view, one of the largest challenges is that epigenetics, as I mentioned, is a change along your lifespan. So when we try to study stroke and the epigenomic changes in stroke, we are very enclosed to knowing when in the stroke process we are studying them. So we usually perform research in samples that are obtained at the time of having a stroke, which gives us a specific challenge because we don’t know if the methylation changes that we observe are a result of having a stroke or are the cause of a stroke...
So from my point of view, one of the largest challenges is that epigenetics, as I mentioned, is a change along your lifespan. So when we try to study stroke and the epigenomic changes in stroke, we are very enclosed to knowing when in the stroke process we are studying them. So we usually perform research in samples that are obtained at the time of having a stroke, which gives us a specific challenge because we don’t know if the methylation changes that we observe are a result of having a stroke or are the cause of a stroke. So that involves an extra step in research to really narrow down which are the causal mechanisms of having a stroke. And one of our previous challenges was how we modify epigenetics to give new therapies. But now that we have epigenetic drugs, the path seems a little bit shorter and a little bit easier than it was before.
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