Butyrates, as a single drug, induce histone acetylation and granulocytic maturation: possible selectivity on core binding factor-acute myeloid leukemia blasts.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a disease characterized by a block of maturation. Genes coding for core binding factors are rearranged in a considerable subset of AML cases and result in an altered interaction of core binding factor (CBF) subunits with transcriptional coregulators (NCoR/SMRT). Recruitment of histone deacetylase is also altered in AML, and a subsequent transcriptional repression of target genes involved in myeloid maturation is determined. We determined here the effects of two histone deacetylase inhibitors, sodium butyrate and the stable prodrug xylitol butyrate derivative (D1), on a t(8;21)-positive cell line (Kasumi-1) as well as primary AML blasts. Exposure (24-96 h) to butyrates (1 mM) of Kasumi-1 cells induced histone H4 acetylation, whereas H3 acetylation was unchanged. Induction of morphological and immunophenotypic granulocytic maturation (96 h), also confirmed by an increased expression of CAAT/enhancer binding protein alpha, was observed. Inhibition of proliferation and apoptosis via activation of caspase-9 was also observed. In primary AML blasts, butyrates (0.5 mM) increased histone H4 acetylation of 18 of 19 cases tested. Terminal granulocytic maturation was observed in all cases (5 of 5) characterized by chromosomal translocations involving CBF, whereas in non-CBF cases, maturation was incomplete (4 of 8) or absent (4 of 8). Our data indicate the possibility to effectively remove, in CBF AML cases, the maturation block generated by histone deacetylase stable recruitment, contributing to a possible development of molecularly targeted therapies of AML.