[The sodium salt of butyrate with potential antineoplastic activity. Butyrate, a short chain fatty acid, competitively binds to the zinc sites of class I and II histone deacetylases (HDACs), leading to hyperacetylation of histones and resulting in a modified DNA conformation, which subsequently leads to the uncoiling or relaxing of chromatin; enhanced accessibility of chromatin to transcription-regulatory complexes leads to increased transcriptional activation of various epigenetically suppressed genes. Butyrate, a HDAC inhibitor, induces cell cycle arrest in G1 or G2/M and also increases the expression of other genes and proteins involved in cellular differentiation and apoptotic signaling ( NCI )]
UMLS (NCI) C0142812 - Lipid
- Pharmacologic Substance