Histone deacetylases (HDACs) have been described to have both neurotoxic and neuroprotective roles, and partly, depend on its sub-cellular distribution.
HDAC inhibitors have a long history of use in the treatment of various
neurological disorders including
epilepsy. Key role of HDACs in GABAergic neurotransmission, synaptogenesis, synaptic plasticity and memory formation was demonstrated whereas very less is known about their role in
drug-resistant epilepsy pathologies. The present study was aimed to investigate the changes in the expression of HDACs, activity and its sub-cellular distribution in mesial
temporal lobe epilepsy with
hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS) patients. For this study, surgically resected hippocampal tissue specimens of 28 MTLE-HS patients and 20 hippocampus from post-mortem cases were obtained. Real-time PCR was done to analyse the
mRNA expression. HDAC activity and the
protein levels of HDACs in cytoplasm as well as nucleus were measured spectrophotometrically. Further, sub-cellular localization of HDACs was characterized by immunofluorescence. Significant upregulation of HDAC1, HDAC2, HDAC4, HDAC5, HDAC6, HDAC10 and HDAC11
mRNA were observed in MTLE-HS. Alterations in the
mRNA expression of
glutamate and
gamma-aminobutyric acid (
GABA) receptor subunits have been also demonstrated. We observed significant increase of HDAC activity and nuclear level of HDAC1, HDAC2, HDAC5 and HDAC11 in the hippocampal samples obtained from patients with MTLE-HS. Moreover, we found altered cytoplasmic level of HDAC4, HDAC6 and HDAC10 in the hippocampal sample obtained from patients with MTLE-HS. Alterations in the level of HDACs could potentially be part of a dynamic transcription regulation associated with MTLE-HS. Changes in cytoplasmic level of HDAC4, 6 and 10 suggest that cytoplasmic substrates may play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of MTLE-HS. Knowledge regarding expression pattern and sub-cellular distribution of HDACs may help to devise specific HDACi
therapy for
epilepsy.