New Insights into the Connection Between Histone Deacetylases, Cell Metabolism, and Cancer

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) activity and cell metabolism are considered important targets for cancer therapy, as both are deregulated and associated with the onset and maintenance of tumors.

Besides the classical function of HDACs as HDAC enzymes controlling the transcription, it is becoming increasingly evident that these proteins are involved in the regulation of several other cellular processes by their ability to deacetylate hundreds of proteins with different functions in both the cytoplasm and the nucleus. Importantly, recent high-throughput studies have identified as important target proteins several enzymes involved in different metabolic pathways. Conversely, it has been also shown that metabolic intermediates may control HDACs activity. Consequently, the acetylation/deacetylation of metabolic enzymes and the ability of metabolic intermediates to modulate HDACs may represent a cross-talk connecting cell metabolism, transcription, and other HDACs-controlled processes in physiological and pathological conditions.

Since metabolic alterations and HDACs deregulation are important cancer hallmarks, disclosing connections among them may improve our understanding on cancer mechanisms and reveal novel therapeutic protocols against this disease.

High-throughput metabolic studies performed by using more sophisticated technologies applied to the available models of conditional deletion of HDACs in cell lines or in mice will fill the gap in the current understanding and open directions for future research.