Scriptaid is a drug which acts as a

histone deacetylase inhibitor Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDAC inhibitors, HDACi, HDIs) are chemical compounds that enzyme inhibitor, inhibit histone deacetylases. Since acetylation of histones, deacetylation of histones produces transcriptionally silenced heterochromatin ...

, and was one of the first compounds discovered via

high-throughput screening High-throughput screening (HTS) is a method for scientific discovery especially used in drug discovery and relevant to the fields of biology, materials science and chemistry. Using robotics, data processing/control software, liquid handling device ...

that acts at this target. Scriptaid itself was never developed for medical applications, but led to the development of structurally related drugs such as

vorinostat Vorinostat (International Nonproprietary Name, rINN), also known as suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (suberic acid, suberoyl+aniline, anilide+hydroxamic acid abbreviated as SAHA), is a member of a larger class of compounds that inhibit histone de ...

, which have been accepted into clinical use. Most early research using these compounds focused on their

anti-cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal ...

activity, but more recent research has found scriptaid to be useful in other applications such as

cloning Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical genomes, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction; this reproduction of an organism by itself without ...

and research into regulation of metabolism.

References

Histone deacetylase inhibitors Hydroxamic acids {{pharm-stub