A potent trifluoromethyl ketone histone deacetylase inhibitor exhibits class-dependent mechanism of action

Abstract

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) enzymes are validated targets for treatment of certain cancers and have potential as targets for pharmacological intervention in a number of other diseases. Thus, inhibitors of these enzymes have received considerable attention, but these are often evaluated by IC₅₀ value determination, which may vary significantly depending on assay conditions. In this work, we therefore performed detailed kinetic evaluation of inhibitors containing two fundamentally different zinc-binding chemotypes, hydroxamic acid or trifluoromethyl ketone. For the hydroxamic acids, a fast-on–fast-off mechanism was observed, but the trifluoromethyl ketone compound exhibited differential mechanisms depending on the enzyme isoform. The trifluoromethyl ketone compound displayed a fast-on–fast-off mechanism against class-IIa HDACs 4 and 7, but slow-binding mechanisms against class-I and class-IIb enzymes (HDACs 1–3, 6 and 8). Furthermore, different competitive, slow-binding mechanisms were observed for HDACs 1, 2, and 6 vs. HDACs 3 and 8, demonstrating the power of kinetic experiments for characterisation of enzyme inhibitors.