text: Carbon source availability is reflected in histone acetylation in cancer. Glucose and glutamine are the major carbon sources of most mammalian cells, and glucose metabolism is closely related to histone acetylation and deacetylation. Glucose availability affects the intracellular pool of acetyl-CoA, a central metabolic intermediate that is also the acetyl donor in histone acetylation. Glucose is converted to acetyl-CoA by the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC), which produces acetyl-CoA from glucose-derived pyruvate; and by adenosine triphosphate-citrate lyase (ACLY), which generates acetyl-CoA from glucose-derived citrate. PDC and ACLY activity depend on glucose availability, which thereby influences histone acetylation and consequently modulates gene expression and cell cycle progression. Dysregulation of ACLY and PDC contributes to metabolic reprogramming and promotes the development of multiple cancers. At the same time, glucose metabolism maintains the NAD+/NADH ratio, and NAD+ participates in SIRT-mediated histone deacetylation. SIRT enzyme activity is altered in various malignancies, and inhibiting SIRT6, a histone deacetylase that acts on acetylated H3K9 and H3K56, promotes tumorigenesis. SIRT7, which deacetylates H3K18 and thereby represses transcription of target genes, is activated in cancer to stabilize cells in the transformed state. Nutrients appear to modulate SIRT activity. For example, long-chain fatty acids activate the deacetylase function of SIRT6, and this may affect histone acetylation.
  Addiction
  Epigenetic modifications of histone tails in specific regions of the brain are of central importance in addictions, and much of the work on addiction has focused on histone acetylation.  Once particular epigenetic alterations occur, they appear to be long lasting "molecular scars" that may account for the persistence of addictions.
  Cigarette smokers (about 21% of the US population) are usually addicted to nicotine.  After 7 days of nicotine treatment of mice, acetylation of both histone H3 and histone H4 was increased at the FosB promoter in the nucleus accumbens of the brain, causing 61% increase in FosB expression.  This would also increase expression of the splice variant Delta FosB.  In the nucleus accumbens of the brain, Delta FosB functions as a "sustained molecular switch" and "master control protein" in the development of an addiction.