Epigenetic
enzymes are now targeted to treat the underlying gene
expression dysregulation that contribute to disease pathogenesis.
Histone deacetylases (HDACs) have shown broad potential in treatments
against cancer and emerging data supports their targeting in the context
of cardiovascular disease and central nervous system dysfunction.
Development of a molecular agent for non-invasive imaging to elucidate
the distribution and functional roles of HDACs in humans will accelerate
medical research and drug discovery in this domain. Herein, we describe
the synthesis and validation of an HDAC imaging agent, [11C]6. Our imaging results demonstrate that this probe
has high specificity, good selectivity, and appropriate kinetics and
distribution for imaging HDACs in the brain, heart, kidney, pancreas,
and spleen. Our findings support the translational potential for [11C]6 for human epigenetic imaging.