VPA inhibits renal cancer cell migration by targeting HDAC2 and down-regulating HIF-1α

Cell migration plays major roles in human renal cancer-related death, but the molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Valproic acid (VPA) is a broad-spectrum inhibitor of class I and II histone deacetylases and shows great anticancer activity in a variety of human cancers. In this study, we found that VPA significantly inhibited cell migration but not proliferation of human renal cancer ACHN cells. Mechanistic studies found that VPA significantly inhibited the expression of HIF-1 alpha. Knockdown of HIF-1 alpha could obviously inhibited cell migration, while over-expression of HIF-1 alpha markedly rescued the inhibition of VPA on cell migration. Further studies found that knockdown of HDAC2 completely mimicked the effects of VPA on HIF-1 alpha and cell migration, and over-expression of HIF-1 alpha could also rescue the effects of HDAC2 knockdown on cell migration. Collectively, these results indicated that the potential of specific inhibition of HDAC2 by small molecular chemicals may lead to future therapeutic agents in human renal cancer treatment.