Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Progress in discovery and development of natural inhibitors of histone deacetylases (HDACs) as anti-cancer agents

  • Review
  • Published:
Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives of Pharmacology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The study of epigenetic translational modifications had drawn great interest for the last few decades. These processes play a vital role in many diseases and cancer is one of them. Histone acetyltransferase (HAT) and histone deacetylases (HDACs) are key enzymes involved in the acetylation and deacetylation of histones and ultimately in post-translational modifications. Cancer frequently exhibits epigenetic changes, particularly disruption in the expression and activity of HDACs. It includes the capacity to regulate proliferative signalling, circumvent growth inhibitors, escape cell death, enable replicative immortality, promote angiogenesis, stimulate invasion and metastasis, prevent immunological destruction, and genomic instability. The majority of tumours develop and spread as a result of HDAC dysregulation. As a result, HDAC inhibitors (HDACis) were developed, and they today stand as a very promising therapeutic approach. One of the most well-known and efficient therapies for practically all cancer types is chemotherapy. However, the efficiency and safety of treatment are constrained by higher toxicity. The same has been observed with the synthetic HDACi. Natural products, owing to many advantages over synthetic compounds for cancer treatment have always been a choice for therapy. Hence, naturally available molecules are of particular interest for HDAC inhibition and HDAC has drawn the attention of the research fraternity due to their potential to offer a diverse array of chemical structures and bioactive compounds. This diversity opens up new avenues for exploring less toxic HDAC inhibitors to reduce side effects associated with conventional synthetic inhibitors. The review presents comprehensive details on natural product HDACi, their mechanism of action and their biological effects. Moreover, this review provides a brief discussion on the structure activity relationship of selected natural HDAC inhibitors and their analogues which can guide future research to discover selective, more potent HDACi with minimal toxicity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

AM:

Allyl meracaptan

CaMK II:

Calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase II

CDK:

Cyclin dependent kinase

Cyl:

Cylindrocladium scoparium

DADS:

Diallyl disulfide

DNMT:

DNA methyltransferases

ESCC:

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

GLUT-4:

Glucose transporter type 4

HAT:

Histone acetylases

HC:

Helminthosporium carbonum

HDAC:

Histone deacetylase

HDACi:

Histone deacetylase inhibitor

HIF-1 α:

Hypoxia inducible factor 1α

HSF-1:

Heat shock factor-1

LAM-2:

Lysosomal-associated membrane protein 2

NAD:

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide

NES:

Nuclear export signal

NF-κB:

Nuclear factor kappa B

NLS:

Nuclear localization signal

PDGF:

Platelet derived growth factor

PEPCK:

Phosphoenol pyruvate carboxykinase

Psam A:

Psammaplin A

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

SAHA:

Suberanilohydroxamic acid

SB:

Sodium butyrate

SFN:

Sulforphane

SIRT:

Sirtuin

SP:

Sodium propionate

TRAIL:

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand

TSA:

Trichostatin A

VEGF:

Vascular endothelial growth factor

ZBG:

Zinc binding group

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

Abhishek Wahi: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing, Drawing—Figures and structures; Priti Jain: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing—review & editing. Apurba Sinhari: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Hemant R Jadhav: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing—review. The authors confirm that no paper mill and artificial intelligence was used.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Priti Jain.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wahi, A., Jain, P., Sinhari, A. et al. Progress in discovery and development of natural inhibitors of histone deacetylases (HDACs) as anti-cancer agents. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 397, 675–702 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-023-02674-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00210-023-02674-4

Keywords

Navigation