. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Feb 19.

Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Neurosci. 2017 May 18;18(6):347–361. doi: 10.1038/nrn.2017.46

Table 1 |.

Drugs that target the epigenetic machinery

Inhibitor	Drug target	Stage of development	Animal models tested	Refs
*DNMT inhibitors*
Decitabine (also known as 5-aza-2- deoxycytidine; marketed as Dacogen by Eisai)	DNMTs	Approved in 2006	Stroke	^76,77
Zebularine	DNMTs	Preclinical	Stroke	¹³²
*HDAC inhibitors*
Valproic acid	Class I and II HDACs	Approved in 1986	AD, HD, stroke and global ischaemia	^133–139
Phenylbutyrate	Class I and II HDACs	Approved in1996	AD and HD	^140–143
Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (also known as vorinostat; marketed as Zolinza by Merck)	Class I and II HDACs	Approved in 2006	AD, HD and stroke	¹³³, ^144–147
Nicotinamide (sirtuin inhibitor)	Class III HDACs	Phase III	AD and HD	^94,95
Entinostat (also known as MS-275)	Class I HDACs	Phase II	AD and stroke	^80,148
Trichostatin A	Class I and II HDACs	Preclinical	HD, stroke and global ischaemia	^28,149,150
AGK2 (sirtuin 2 inhibitor)	Class III HDACs	Preclinical	HD and PD	^151,152
Sodium butyrate	Class I and II HDACs	Preclinical	AD, HD, stroke, brain atrophy and the bi-transgenic CK-p25 mouse model of neurodegeneration	^26,133,140, ^153–156

AD, Alzheimer disease; CK-p25, mouse model in which p25 is conditionally expressed under the control of the promoter of the gene that encodes calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II; DNMT, DNA methyltransferase; HD, Huntington disease; HDAC, histone deacetylase; PD, Parkinson disease.