MethARD: Human DNA Methylation Database for Genes Associated with Age-related Disorders

DNA methylation can be explained as the reversible addition of methyl groups at CpG di-nucleotides that symbolizes an regulatory layer that is important and associated with cellular specification, gene regulation, & expression. Methylation taking place at cytosine in the 5 position of the pyrimidine ring is a foremost modification of the DNA in most of the organisms. It is necessary to gather information that makes an association between methylated genes and diseases for various diseases to be diagnosed and for better treatment decisions. Thus, the present work is aimed to create an efficient, effective and accurate system to enable the extraction of the detailed information related to methylation of genes, by contributing resources from various databases namely: Disease Meth, Meth DB, Dragon Database for Methylated Genes and Diseases (DDMGD), MethyCancer Database, Database of CpG islands and Analytical Tools (DBCAT) etc. to maintain the epigenetic research and biomedical community by providing a comprehensive database linked to methylated genes in diseases which can be established by text mining. A database, MethARD (Human DNA Methylation database for genes associated with age related disorders) has been created which stores information on more than 1000 genes that are associated with various genes, which are responsible for ARDs. We think that the research may ease the analysis of methylation pattern in various genes linked with ARDs and give signs for decrypting the biology of aging.