An Acetyl-Click Chemistry Assay to Measure Histone Acetyltransferase 1 Acetylation

Quick and accurate chemical assays to screen for specific inhibitors are an important tool in the drug development arsenal. Here, we present a scalable acetyl-click chemistry assay to measure the inhibition of HAT1 acetylation activity.

Our developed acetyl-click assay serves as a tool to assess HAT1 acetyl transferase activity, which is key in isolating H4 histones before nucleosome incorporation. We aim to use this method for high throughput screening of small molecule inhibitors against the HAT1 enzyme. This method measures enzymatic activity directly on the peptide substrate.

This offers advantages compared to other enzymatic assays by avoiding biologic variability and antibody related costs. This is also high throughput and can be adapted to use with other acetyl transferases. We have recently published a small molecule HAT1 inhibitor based on this assay that has activity in cells and animals.

We continue to use this assay to screen additional chemical libraries and perform structure activity relationships. We are advancing methods to track histone production, folding, chaperoning, and chromatin integration. This highlights the need for improved chemical tools to explore biological mechanisms and stimulate drug discovery.

Our goal is to demonstrate that targeting histone production can have therapeutic benefit for diseases such as cancer.