HDACi: The Columbus’ Egg in Improving Cancer Treatment and Reducing Neurotoxicity?

Abstract

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are a group of enzymes that modify gene expression through the lysine acetylation of both histone and non-histone proteins, leading to a broad range of effects on various biological pathways. New insights on this topic broadened the knowledge on their biological activity and even more questions arose from those discoveries. The action of HDACs is versatile in biological pathways and, for this reason, inhibitors of HDACs (HDACis) have been proposed as a way to interfere with HDACs’ involvement in tumorigenesis. In 2006, the first HDACi was approved by FDA for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma; however, more selective HDACis were recently approved. In this review, we will consider new information on HDACs’ expression and their regulation for the treatment of central and peripheral nervous system diseases.