Role of Histone acetyltransferase, “p300” in Human Cancer

Abstract

p300 is a Histone acetyltransferase which functions as global transcriptional coactivator which plays important roles in various biological processes including cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. As p300 is an acetyltransferase it stimulates many genes to express, thus carrying the process of transcription. So the aberrant activity of p300 may lead to many types of cancer. However, the mechanisms by which the inactivation of p300/CBP contributes to carcinogenesis have not been fully elucidated.
Normally, the expression of p300 should be remain at base levels in normal tissues. In cancer cells its expressions is expected to be higher as it is a transcriptional coactivator. The results obtained might be due to the activation of promoter regions of p300 by other epigenetic mechanisms (for example, demethylation of DNA by MBD proteins and GADD45 mediated mechanisms).