HDAC1 Substrate Profiling Using Proteomics-Based Substrate Trapping

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) proteins are overexpressed in multiple diseases, including cancer, and have emerged as anticancer drug targets. HDAC proteins regulate cellular processes, such as the cell cycle, apoptosis, and cell proliferation, by deacetylating histone and non-histone substrates. Although a plethora of acetylated proteins have been identified using large-scale proteomic approaches, the HDAC proteins responsible for their dynamic deacetylation have been poorly studied. For example, few substrates of HDAC1 have been identified, which is mainly due to the scarcity of substrate identification tools. We recently developed a mutant trapping strategy to identify novel substrates of HDAC1. Herein, we introduce an improved version of the trapping method that uses mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics to identify multiple substrates simultaneously. Among the substrate hits, CDK1, AIFM1, MSH6, and RuvB-like 1 were identified as likely HDAC1 substrates. These newly discovered HDAC1 substrates are involved in various biological processes, suggesting novel functions of HDAC1 apart from epigenetics. Substrate trapping combined with MS-based proteomics provides an efficient approach to HDAC1 substrate identification and contributes to the full characterization of HDAC function in normal and disease states.