title: A fluorogenic histone deacetylase assay well suited for high-throughput activity screening.
abstract: Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are important enzymes for the transcriptional regulation of gene expression in eukaryotic cells. Recent findings suggest that HDACs could be key targets for chemotherapeutic intervention in malignant diseases. A convenient and sensitive fluorogenic assay for HDAC activity would therefore expedite studies of HDAC in transcriptional regulation and in vitro screening for drug discovery. In this study, novel fluorogenic substrates of HDACs were synthesized with an epsilon-acetylated lysyl moiety and an adjacent MCA moiety at the C terminus of the peptide chain. Upon deacetylation of the acetylated lysyl moiety, molecules became substrates for trypsin, which released highly fluorescent AMC molecules in a subsequent step of the assay. The fluorescence increased in direct proportion to the amount of deacetylated substrate molecules, i.e., HDAC activity. The nonisotopic, homogeneous assay is well suited for high-throughput HDAC inhibitor screening.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics and Preparative Molecular Biology, Institute for Microbiology and Genetics, Grisebachstrasse 8, 37077 Goettingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wegener
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wirsching
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Riester
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schwienhorst
mesh_terms: D000107:Acetylation; D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000494:pharmacology; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000379:methods*; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000494:pharmacology; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D056572:Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors; D006655:Histone Deacetylases / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D020128:Inhibitory Concentration 50; D007700:Kinetics; D008099:Liver / Q000201:enzymology; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D014357:Trypsin / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D056572:Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors; D009842:Oligopeptides; D014357:Trypsin; D006655:Histone Deacetylases