Protein / target
Protein deacetylase HDAC6
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Polyubiquitin modification-dependent protein binding
Strongest disease association
X-linked dominant chondrodysplasia, Chassaing-Lacombe type
Therapeutic position
Established drug target
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Deacetylates a wide range of non-histone substrates.
View complete UniProt function annotationHide complete annotation
Deacetylates a wide range of non-histone substrates (PubMed:12024216, PubMed:18606987, PubMed:20308065, PubMed:24882211, PubMed:26246421, PubMed:30538141, PubMed:31857589, PubMed:30770470, PubMed:38534334, PubMed:39567688). Plays a central role in microtubule-dependent cell motility by mediating deacetylation of tubulin (PubMed:12024216, PubMed:20308065, PubMed:26246421). Required for cilia disassembly via deacetylation of alpha-tubulin (PubMed:17604723, PubMed:26246421). Alpha-tubulin deacetylation results in destabilization of dynamic microtubules (By similarity). Promotes deacetylation of CTTN, leading to actin polymerization, promotion of autophagosome-lysosome fusion and completion of autophagy (PubMed:30538141). Deacetylates SQSTM1 (PubMed:31857589). Deacetylates peroxiredoxins PRDX1 and PRDX2, decreasing their reducing activity (PubMed:18606987). Deacetylates antiviral protein RIGI in the presence of viral mRNAs which is required for viral RNA detection by RIGI (By similarity). Sequentially deacetylates and polyubiquitinates DNA mismatch repair protein MSH2 which leads to MSH2 degradation, reducing cellular sensitivity to DNA-damaging agents and decreasing cellular DNA mismatch repair activities (PubMed:24882211). Deacetylates DNA mismatch repair protein MLH1 which prevents recruitment of the MutL alpha complex (formed by the MLH1-PMS2 heterodimer) to the MutS alpha complex (formed by the MSH2-MSH6 heterodimer), leading to tolerance of DNA damage (PubMed:30770470). Deacetylates RHOT1/MIRO1 which blocks mitochondrial transport and mediates axon growth inhibition (By similarity). Deacetylates transcription factor SP1 which leads to increased expression of ENG, positively regulating angiogenesis (PubMed:38534334). Deacetylates KHDRBS1/SAM68 which regulates alternative splicing by inhibiting the inclusion of CD44 alternate exons (PubMed:26080397). Deacetylates PRDM16 (By similarity). Acts as a valine sensor by binding to valine through the primate-specific SE14 repeat region (PubMed:39567688). In valine deprivation conditions, translocates from the cytoplasm to the nucleus where it deacetylates TET2 which promotes TET2-dependent DNA demethylation, leading to DNA damage (PubMed:39567688). Promotes odontoblast differentiation following IPO7-mediated nuclear import and subsequent repression of RUNX2 expression (By similarity). In addition to its protein deacetylase activity, plays a key role in the degradation of misfolded proteins: when misfolded proteins are too abundant to be degraded by the chaperone refolding system and the ubiquitin-proteasome, mediates the transport of misfolded proteins to a cytoplasmic juxtanuclear structure called aggresome (PubMed:17846173). Probably acts as an adapter that recognizes polyubiquitinated misfolded proteins and targets them to the aggresome, facilitating their clearance by autophagy (PubMed:17846173). Involved in the MTA1-mediated epigenetic regulation of ESR1 expression in breast cancer (PubMed:24413532)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (78)Hide
Gene Ontology
- Caggresome
- Caxon
- Caxon cytoplasm
- Ccaveola
- Ccell leading edge
- Ccentrosome
- Cciliary basal body
- Ccytoplasm
- Ccytoplasmic ubiquitin ligase complex
- Ccytosol
- Cdendrite
- Chistone deacetylase complex
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Cell migration
- ·Deacetylates a wide range of non-histone substrates (PubMed:12024216, PubMed:18606987, P…
- ·positive regulation of epithelial cell migration
Growth-factor signalling
- ·epidermal growth factor receptor signaling pathway
Transcriptional regulation
- ·Deacetylates a wide range of non-histone substrates (PubMed:12024216, PubMed:18606987, P…
- ·RNA polymerase II cis-regulatory region sequence-specific DNA binding
- ·transcription corepressor binding
- ·DNA-templated transcription
Immune signalling
- ·Deacetylates a wide range of non-histone substrates (PubMed:12024216, PubMed:18606987, P…
- ·Differentiation of naive CD4+ T cells to T helper 2 cells (Th2 cells)
View underlying pathways (12)Hide underlying pathways
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Interaction neighbourhood
Proteins with the strongest functional or physical association. Node size and line weight reflect STRING confidence; hover or select a partner to inspect one association.
Functional and physical associations from STRING v12.0. Only associations with this protein are drawn — partner-to-partner links are not part of this evidence.
Approved medicines with mapped indications
Approved therapies targeting this protein, grouped by what they are approved to treat — the disease-first view of the medicines below. Relationships come from the canonical approved-indication graph (ChEMBL phase-4), the same source as the drug cards.
Broader indication categories (1)Hide
Broad umbrella indications (e.g. “Neoplasms”). Shown here because every medicine also appears under a more specific disease above — kept for completeness, de-emphasised for clarity.
8 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 1 shown here are those on this page with a canonical approved disease indication in the graph. Approved indications from ChEMBL (phase-4), via the canonical drug→disease graph.
Drugs targeting this protein
How approved and investigational drugs engage this protein — mechanism and action type, direct vs complex targeting, and how broadly each acts across other targets. A drug-first view (the section above groups the approved ones disease-first); direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.
Histone deacetylase 6 inhibitor
Indicated for Lymphoma, T-Cell, Lymphoma, T-Cell, Cutaneous, Neoplasms
ChEMBL mechanism, action type, target identity and approved indications. Open Targets clinical status.
Translational evidence
Why this target matters therapeutically, strongest evidence first. Disease associations are gene-level (via the gene that encodes this protein) and open into the full confidence synthesis; the development universe, tractability and safety annotations are target-level, from Open Targets.
Strongest disease associations · via encoding gene HDAC6
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene HDAC6that encodes this protein — not a direct protein–disease relationship. Ranked by Forefront's causal-directness weighting, so genetically- and clinically-evidenced diseases lead over ones that merely share the literature.
View evidence synthesis (5)Hide
The evidence agreement range shows how closely the independent evidence families agree — it is not a statistical confidence interval, and nothing here is fitted to outcome data. Derived from Open Targets evidence types under Forefront weighting; the per-type scores above show the calculation.
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Drug development
14 compounds recorded · 8 approved · 6 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (10)Hide
Open Targets known-drugs universe. Drug name and highest clinical stage only — the disease relationship is NOT read from this slice (it carries trial-context noise); approved indications come from the canonical graph above.
Tractability
Small molecules — Strong
Protein degraders — Emerging
Other modalities — Strong
View underlying tractability evidence (10)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
Safety-related annotations
Terms indexed against this target in Open Targets' safety data, with their datasource. These are annotations, not causal claims: the direction of effect (whether activation or inhibition is implicated), species and evidence strength are not captured here, so an entry does not mean that modulating this target is known to cause that condition.
Clinical trials
Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein. Ranked by active status, then clinical phase and recency, and spread across the targeting drugs.
View all trials (26)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
What's happening now
Recent therapeutic activity around this target — regulatory actions, clinical trials and safety signals for a drug that targets this protein, plus publications where such a drug is a genuine subject. Every item is reached indirectly through the drug, not the protein itself; incidental mentions (a paper that merely measures a drug) and press items are excluded.
- New publicationKetogenic Diet Alters the Epigenetic and Immune Landscape of Prostate Cancer to Overcome Resistance to Immune Checkpoint Blockade Therapy.
- New publicationSuberoylanilide Hydroxamic Acid (SAHA) Is a Driver Molecule of Neuroplasticity: Implication for Neurological Diseases.
- New publicationPhase I study of the mTOR inhibitor ridaforolimus and the HDAC inhibitor vorinostat in advanced renal cell carcinoma and other solid tumors.
- New publicationVorinostat in patients with advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma who have progressed on previous chemotherapy (VANTAGE-014): a phase 3, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial.
- New publicationA phase 1 study of vorinostat maintenance after autologous transplant in high-risk lymphoma.
- New publicationA multicentre phase II study of vorinostat in patients with relapsed or refractory indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma and mantle cell lymphoma.
- New publicationPhase II trial of vorinostat in advanced melanoma.
- New publicationVorinostat plus tacrolimus and mycophenolate to prevent graft-versus-host disease after related-donor reduced-intensity conditioning allogeneic haemopoietic stem-cell transplantation: a phase 1/2 trial.
- New publicationPhase I and pharmacokinetic study of the oral histone deacetylase inhibitor vorinostat in Japanese patients with relapsed or refractory cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.
- New publicationEvaluation of safety, pharmacokinetics, and efficacy of vorinostat, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, in the treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) cancer in a phase I clinical trial.
- New publicationEvaluation of the long-term tolerability and clinical benefit of vorinostat in patients with advanced cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.
- New publicationA single supratherapeutic dose of vorinostat does not prolong the QTc interval in patients with advanced cancer.
Objective event titles are shown unmodified; the event kind and significance line are derived from structured fields. Forefront AttentionEvent stream aggregating Europe PMC Regulatory filings ClinicalTrials.gov.