Epigenetic regulation of immune cells in health and disease

The immune system exhibits remarkable plasticity, enabling dynamic responses to environmental cues while maintaining tissue homeostasis. Emerging evidence highlights epigenetic regulation as a central mechanism governing immune cell identity, activation, and memory across health, aging, and disease. While advances in single-cell transcriptomics have cataloged diverse immune cell states, the epigenetic mechanisms that establish and stabilize these transcriptional programs remain incompletely understood.Epigenetic processes - including chromatin accessibility, histone modifications, DNA methylation, RNA modification and higher-order chromatin organization - play critical roles in shaping immune cell function without altering the underlying DNA sequence. These mechanisms integrate signals from transcription factors, metabolic states, and environmental exposures to fine-tune gene expression. Importantly, dysregulation of epigenetic landscapes has been implicated in the development and persistence of inflammatory and immune-mediated diseases.Given the challenges associated with directly targeting transcription factors, epigenetic regulators offer a promising and potentially reversible therapeutic entry point. However, key questions remain regarding the specificity, durability, and safety of epigenetic interventions, particularly in selectively modulating pathogenic immune responses while preserving protective immunity.This Research Topic aims to advance our understanding of how epigenetic mechanisms control immune cell states in health and disease, and how these processes can be harnessed for therapeutic benefit. In particular, we seek to explore how environmental and microbial cues reshape epigenetic landscapes, how epigenetic dysregulation drives disease-associated transcriptional programs, and how emerging technologies can resolve these processes at high resolution.We welcome submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following areas:• Epigenetic regulation of immune cell development, differentiation, and activation • Mechanistic roles of chromatin accessibility, histone modifications, DNA methylation, RNA modification, and 3D genome organization in immune-mediated inflammation • Epigenetic control of innate and adaptive immune memory, including trained immunity • Environmental and microbial influences on immune epigenetic programming (e.g., microbiota, diet, infection, circadian rhythm, activity)• Interplay between metabolism and epigenetic regulation in immune cells • Epigenetic dysregulation in immune aging, autoimmune, neuroinflammatory, metabolic, infectious diseases, and cancer (e.g. epigenetic regulation in CD8 T cells in cancer control)• Therapeutic targeting of epigenetic regulators, including small molecules and epigenome-editing approaches • Emerging technologies such as single-cell and spatial multi-omics to dissect epigenetic mechanisms in immune cells • Sex-specific and hormone-dependent epigenetic regulation of immune responses• Epigenetic biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, disease stratification, and therapeutic response in inflammatory diseases• Epigenetic control of immune tolerance, immune suppression, and resolution of inflammation• Cell–cell communication and niche-derived signals that shape immune cell epigenetic statesWe invite original research articles, reviews, and perspectives that provide mechanistic insights and/or translational advances. By integrating discoveries across molecular, cellular, and systems-level studies, this Research Topic aims to define new paradigms for modulating immune responses through epigenetic reprogramming and to accelerate the development of next-generation therapies for inflammatory diseases. Topic editors: Ka Lung Cheung, Jianglin Zhang Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81487/epigenetic-regulation-of-immune-cells-in-health-and-disease