BioCentury
ARTICLE | Translation in Brief

HATs off to epigenetics

How AbbVie is expanding its reach in cancer epigenetics

October 26, 2017 7:51 PM UTC

Although the epigenetics field is heating up, most compounds on the market and in development are clustered around the same small set of targets. Now, a team led by AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) has uncovered an inhibitor of two histone acetyltransferases, a class of epigenetic enzymes largely untouched by drug developers.

In a paper published in Nature last month, AbbVie partnered with six other companies, and academics from the University of Copenhagen, University of Pennsylvania and The Johns Hopkins University to identify a potent dual inhibitor of E1A binding protein p300 (EP300; p300) and CREB binding protein (CREBBP; CBP)...