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Target practice: HDAC inhibitors for schizophrenia

Nature Neuroscience volume 15, pages 1180–1181 (2012)Cite this article

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A report in this issue suggests that inhibiting histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) could be therapeutic in schizophrenia. Targeting chromatin remodeling in adults to treat a chronic brain disorder is not, however, likely to be easy.

Not long ago, epigenetics—the study of phenotype determination by mechanisms other than DNA sequences—dealt nearly exclusively with such fundamental developmental questions as how the single genome of an individual organism could give rise to the diverse cell types of the body. Research tended to focus on relatively stable modifications in the structure and function of chromatin, the higher order organization of chromosomes within cell nuclei produced by the interaction of DNA with histones and associated proteins. Epigenetic remodeling of chromatin makes genes more available or less available for transcription and can be retained across multiple rounds of cell division or even transmitted across generations by multicellular organisms.

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Figure 1: Epigenetic regulation of mGlu2 transcription.

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  1. Steven E. Hyman is at the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.,

    Steven E Hyman

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  1. Steven E Hyman
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Correspondence to Steven E Hyman.

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S.E.H. is a Novartis Science Board Member.

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Hyman, S. Target practice: HDAC inhibitors for schizophrenia. Nat Neurosci 15, 1180–1181 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3200

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