Advances in understanding epigenetic impacts on dendritic cell regulation and function

Abstract Dendritic cells (DCs) are the only cells empowered with inducing primary immune response among resting naïve T lymphocytes, hence it is crucial to understand the regulation and function of DCs. During an adaptive immune response, DCs acquire antigens from invasive entities and present the antigens on their own cell surface, hence they are also known as professional antigen‐presenting cells. Epigenetic modifications to the genome play an important role in both the development and the function of DCs. In this direction, significant advancements have been made using high‐throughput methods like ATAC‐seq, ChIP‐seq, RNA‐seq, bisulfite‐seq and so forth to uncover chromatin accessibility landscape, genome‐wide transcription factor (TF) binding, complete transcriptomic profiles, and DNA methylation, respectively. DCs lineage specification and function are determined by TF binding, which is dependent on epigenetic modifications. However, major gaps in knowledge still exist regarding how and why aberrant epigenetic modifications result in defective development and function of DCs leading to an impaired immune system. Hence, this review compiles up‐to‐date literature regarding the exquisite regulation of DCs via epigenetic regulation, to emphasize the potential of further epigenetics research on DCs for addressing current gaps of knowledge in the field. The review also briefly highlights recent findings on DC defects in coronavirus disease 2019 revealed by single‐cell RNA‐seq, and the importance of DCs in clinical trials. Overall, the review highlights how epigenetics‐based state‐of‐the‐art high‐throughput technology can help discoveries on DCs which are crucial to the immune system and pathogenesis, and how DCs are currently targeted for therapeutic developments and clinical trials.