14th World Cancer & Anti- Cancer Therapy Convention

Histone deacetylase inhibitors are a new class of drug that interferes with the function of histone deacetylase . These drugs are being used in neurology and psychiatry as a mood stabilizers and as a anti epileptics. More recently they are being investigated as possible treatments of cancer and inflammatory diseases. Histone deacetylase inhibitors affects the gene expression by hyperacetylation of histone. To carry out gene expression,a cell must control the coiling and uncoiling of D.N.A around histones.This is accomplished with the assistance of histone acetyl transferase which acetylate the lysine residue in core histone leading to a less compact and transcriptionally active chromatin and on the converse, the action of histone deacetylase which remove the acetyl group from the lysine residue leading to the formation of a condensed and transcriptionally silenced chromatin. Reversible modification of the terminal tails of core hitones constitute the major epigenetic mechanism for remodeling higher order chromatin structure and controlling gene expression . Histone deacetylase inhibitors block this action and can result in hyperacetylation of histone thereby affecting gene expressions.