Identification of HDAC Inhibitors Using a Cell-Based HDAC I/II Assay

In this study, we describe a screening approach for identification of compounds that inhibit endogenous class I and II HDACs. A homogeneous, luminogenic HDAC I/II assay was optimized in a 1536-well plate format in several human cancer cell lines, including HCT116 and human neural stem cells. The assay confirmed 37 known HDAC inhibitors from two libraries of known epigenetics-active compounds. Using the assay, we identified a group of potential HDAC inhibitors by screening the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Pharmaceutical Collection of 2527 small-molecule drugs. The selected compounds showed similar HDAC I/II inhibitory potency and efficacy values in both HCT116 and neural stem cells. Several previously unidentified HDAC inhibitors were further evaluated and profiled for their selectivity against a panel of 10 HDAC I/II isoforms using fluorogenic HDAC biochemical assays. In summary, our results show that several novel HDAC inhibitors, including nafamostat and piceatannol, have been identified using the HDAC I/II cell-based assay, and multiple cell types have been validated for high-throughput screening of large chemical libraries.
Source: Journal of Biomolecular Screening - Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Tags: Technical Note Source Type: research