Research advances in the use of histone deacetylase inhibitors for epigenetic targeting of cancer.

The causes and progression of cancer are controlled by epigenetic processes, and thus the mechanisms involved in epigenetic regulation of cancer development and gene expression, gene and signaling pathways have been studied. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) have a major impact on chromatin remodeling and epigenetics, making their inhibitors a very interesting area of research. This review is a comprehensive report on the literature published in the past few years. Histone deacetylase(HDAC) inhibitors consist of an attractive field for targeted therapy against cancer. This review is focused on the use of HDAC inhibitors as anticancer treatment and explains the mechanisms of their therapeutic effects on cancer. An analysis of the beneficial characteristics and drawbacks of HDAC inhibitors is presented, which will assist the pre-clinical and clinical researchers in the design of future experiments to improve the therapeutic efficacy of these drugs and circumvent the challenges in the path of successful epigenetic therapy. Future therapeutic strategies may include combination of HDAC inhibitors and chemotherapy or other inhibitors, to target multiple oncogenic signaling pathways.