Analyze the role of DNA methylation in regulating gene expression and mediating heroin-induced aberrant behaviors.

Heroin addiction is a chronic and relapsing brain disorder characterized by compulsive drug-seeking, the negative emotional state of withdrawal and specific behavioural alterations, which indicating long-lasting alterations in gene and protein expression within specific reward-related brain regions. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation regulate drug-induced gene expression profiles and enduring behavioural phenotypes. Recent data suggest that altered DNA methylation may indicate the changed gene expression programs in response to experience and regulate the synaptic plasticity as well as is implicated in memory formation. DNA methylation may also be a critical molecular mechanism that indicated the enduring addiction-related changes in brain plasticity. However, little is known about the role of DNA methylation regulatory events in mediating the lasting effects of heroin-seeking behaviour.