Histone Acetyltransferase Enzymes (HATs) as Targets for Cancer Therapy

With increasing spread of cancer and extensive studies that conducted in this field, epigenetic factors are involved in addition to genetic and environment factors as contributing factor in cancer. Chromatin modification such as histone acetylation is one of the most important of these processes that histone acetyltransferase done it. Histone acetyltransferases are a group of enzymes that transmit acetyl group to lysine residue of histones and nonhistone proteins. These enzymes on the bases of their catalytic domains divide into different groups that most important of them are GNAT, MYST, CBP/P300, SRC/P160 and others. Acetylation has important effect on the dynamics and chromatin structure and often increases gene expression. In this article we search data base such as PubMed, Google scholar and Scopus to process HATs role in cancer. HATs have an effective role in apoptosis, signaling pathways, metastasis, cell cycle, DNA repair and other mechanisms involved in cancer. Effect of these enzymes on mentioned processes doesnt same and in different situation and cancers can be different, so aberrant function of histone acetyltransferases cause uncontrollable cell proliferation and Signs of malignancy. These results not only introduce histone acetyltransferase as therapeutic target in cancer but also Emphasizes on Necessity of further research and design drugs on this basis.