Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (vorinostat) up-regulates progranulin transcription: rational therapeutic approach to frontotemporal dementia
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Published on: February 25, 2014
Basar Cenik1, Chantelle F Sephton, Colleen M Dewey
1Department of Neuroscience, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas 75390-9111, USA.
Abstract:
Progranulin (GRN) haploinsufficiency is a frequent cause of familial frontotemporal dementia, a currently untreatable progressive neurodegenerative disease. By chemical library screening, we identified suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), a Food and Drug Administration-approved histone deacetylase inhibitor, as an enhancer of GRN expression. SAHA dose-dependently increased GRN mRNA and protein levels in cultured cells and restored near-normal GRN expression in haploinsufficient cells from human subjects. Although elevation of secreted progranulin levels through a post-transcriptional mechanism has recently been reported, this is, to the best of our knowledge, the first report of a small molecule enhancer of progranulin transcription. SAHA has demonstrated therapeutic potential in other neurodegenerative diseases and thus holds promise as a first generation drug for the prevention and treatment of frontotemporal dementia.
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