Rapid and transient oxygen consumption increase following acute HDAC/KDAC inhibition in Drosophila tissue

Epigenetic deregulation, such as the reduction of histone acetylation levels, is thought to be causally linked to various maladies associated with aging. Consequently, histone deacetylase inhibitors are suggested to serve as epigenetic therapy by increasing histone acetylation. However, previous work suggests that many non-histone proteins, including metabolic enzymes, are also acetylated and that post transitional modifications may impact their activity. Furthermore, deacetylase inhibitors were recently shown to impact the acetylation of a variety of proteins. By utilizing a novel technique to measure oxygen consumption rate from whole living tissue, we demonstrate that treatment of whole living fly heads by the HDAC/KDAC inhibitors sodium butyrate and Trichostatin A, induces a rapid and transient increase of oxygen consumption rate. In addition, our study indicates that the rate increase is markedly attenuated in midlife fly head tissue. Overall, our data suggest that HDAC/KDAC inhibitors may induce enhanced mitochondrial activity in a rapid manner. This observed metabolic boost provides further, but novel evidence, that treating various maladies with deacetylase inhibitors may be beneficial.