Histone deacetylases or HDACs are a class of enzymes that belongs to the histone deacetylase/acuc/apha family (there are at least 11 family members) and catalyze the deacetylation of lysine residues in different proteins. HDACs are involved in a variety of signaling pathways (such as notch signaling pathway), cell cycle progression and play an important role in gene expression and transcriptional regulation.

The HDACs are found in both the nuclear and cytoplasmic compartment of the cell and have many diverse downstream target substrates. Members of the class I HDAC family can deacetylase the histone N-terminal tail and represses transcription in large multiprotein complexes with transcriptional co-repressors. Furthermore, HDACs can interact with retinoblastoma tumor-suppressor protein and this complex is a key element in the control of cell proliferation and differentiation. Together with metastasis-associated protein-2, HDACs can deacetylate p53 and modulates its effect on cell growth and apoptosis.

Histone acetylation has been shown to be important in cognitive aging, neurodegeneration, and neuropsychiatric diseases and inhibitors of HDACs exhibit neuroprotective and neuroregenerative properties in animal models of various brain diseases. Furthermore, HDACs have been shown to be commonly associated with many types of cancers and are thought to be involved in cancer development. Therefore, targeting of HDACs seems to be a promising therapeutic strategy against cancers such as colon, lung and cervical as well as chronic myeloid leukemia.

SignalChem offers a diverse and comprehensive range of active HDACs and these can be used to perform deacetylase reaction towards a variety of substrate proteins and peptides.