text: Specifically, gene expression data demonstrated increased activity of HAT and decreased level of HDAC activity in patients with Asthma.  Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease showed there is an overall decrease in HDAC activity with unchanged levels of HAT activity. Results have shown that there is an important role for HAT/HDAC activity balance in inflammatory lung diseases and provided insights on possible therapeutic targets.
  Cancer
  Due to the regulatory role during transcription of epigenetic modifications in genes, it is not surprising that changes in epigenetic markers, such as acetylation, can contribute to cancer development. HDACs expression and activity in tumor cells is very different from normal cells. The overexpression and increased activity of HDACs has been shown to be characteristic of tumorigenesis and metastasis, suggesting an important regulatory role of histone deacetylation on the expression of tumor suppressor genes. One of the examples is the regulation role of histone acetylation/deacetylation in P300 and CBP, both of which contribute to oncogenesis.
  Approved in 2006 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Vorinostat represents a new category for anticancer drugs that are in development. Vorinostat targets histone acetylation mechanisms and can effectively inhibit abnormal chromatin remodeling in cancerous cells. Targets of Vorinostat includes HDAC1, HDAC2, HDAC3 and HDAC6.