Tuning acetylated chromatin with HAT inhibitors: a novel tool for therapy

Epigenetics, the heritable changes that do not involve DNA sequences, give dynamic propulsion to a static genome and modulate genome accessibility by acting through multiple layers of regula- tion, ultimately ending with a variable organization of chromatin. The main player in chromatin reprograming is the nucleosome, which modifies its associa- tion to DNA depending on a variety of post-translational modifications (PTMs) on histone tails. PTMs act directly on higher order chromatin structures and affect the degree of DNA wrap around the histone octamer and the interaction and/or sequential recruitment of chro- matin-associated proteins and transcrip- tion factors at defined regions.1 Recently genomic approaches revealed a far more complex epigenome involving key pro- teins of cell signaling.