Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Jul 19, 2025; 15(7): 107524
Published online Jul 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i7.107524
DNA methylation regulates the extinction of fear memory
Le Jiang, Rui-Xue Ma, Er-Shu He, Xiao-Ye Zheng, Xin Peng, Wen-Hao Ma, Ying Li, Han-Wei li, Xue-Yan Zhang, Jie-Yu Ji, Yan-Jiao Li, Shang-Lan Qu, Li-Juan Li, Zhi-Ting Gong
Le Jiang, Rui-Xue Ma, Er-Shu He, Xiao-Ye Zheng, Xin Peng, Wen-Hao Ma, Ying Li, Han-Wei li, Xue-Yan Zhang, Jie-Yu Ji, Yan-Jiao Li, Shang-Lan Qu, Li-Juan Li, Zhi-Ting Gong, School of Medicine, Dali University, Dali 671003, Yunnan Province, China
Le Jiang, School of Medicine, Xinjiang College of Science and Technology, Korla 841000, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China
Shang-Lan Qu, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Taylor’s University, Subang Jaya 47500, Selangor, Malaysia
Co-first authors: Le Jiang and Rui-Xue Ma.
Co-corresponding authors: Li-Juan Li and Zhi-Ting Gong.
Author contributions: Gong ZT, Li LJ contributed to conceptualization;, Jiang L, Ma RX, Gong ZT, and Li LJ contributed to data curation; Jiang L, Ma RX, Gong ZT, and Li LJ contributed to formal analysis; Li YJ, Li LJ, and Gong ZT contributed to funding acquisition; Jiang L, Ma RX, He ES, Li LJ, and Gong ZT contributed to methodology; Jiang L, Ma RX, and Gong ZT contributed to project administration; Li LJ and Gong ZT contributed to supervision; Jiang L, Ma RX, He ES, Zheng XY, Peng X, Ma WH, Li Y, Li HW, Zhang XY, Ji JY, Li YJ, Qu SL, and Gong ZT contributed to validation; Jiang L, Ma RX, Gong ZT, and Li LJ contributed to writing–original draft; Jiang L, Ma RX, He ES, Zheng XY, Peng X, Ma WH, Li Y, Li HW, Zhang XY, Ji JY, Li YJ, Qu SL, Li LJ, and Gong ZT contributed to writing – review and editing.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82360231; Yunnan Basic Research Program General Project, No. 202401AT070075; Dali Basic Research Program Key Project, No. 202301A020021; and Youth Special Project for Basic Research of Local Universities in Yunnan Province, No. 202301BA070001-127.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Dali University (Protocol No. 2022-P2-119).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE Guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE Guidelines.
Data sharing statement: Data can be found in https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/sb4pr258f2/1.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhi-Ting Gong, Associate Professor, School of Medicine, Dali University, No. 2 Hongsheng Road, Dali 671003, Yunnan Province, China. gzhting@foxmail.com
Received: March 30, 2025
Revised: April 23, 2025
Accepted: May 19, 2025
Published online: July 19, 2025
Processing time: 102 Days and 2.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Reduced methylation by RG108 suppresses extinction, reduces spine density, and inhibits neuronal activity; enhancing methylation by L-methionine improves the efficacy of exposure therapy, offering a potential strategy to treat fear-related disorders.