Novel histone deacetylase inhibitor exhibits antitumor activity via apoptosis induction in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Epigenetic modifications such as histone de- acetylation are commonly related to tumor de- velopment and histone deacetylase (HDAC) in- hibitors have been shown to be potential drugs for cancer treatment. In the present study, we investigated the effects of a novel HDAC in- hibitor, Ky-2, on oral squamous carcinoma cells in vitro. Cell viability was significantly reduced by treatment with Ky-2 at 25 nM, while it also led to augmentation of the proportion of cells in the sub-G1 phase and DNA fragmentation. In addi- tion, immunoblot analysis revealed that Ky-2 enhanced the expression of apoptosis-related proteins. Our results showed that a low concen- tration of Ky-2 induced apoptosis in oral squa- mous carcinoma cells via activation of apoptotic cascades.