Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor SAHA Is a Promising Treatment of Cushing Disease

Context Remission failure following transsphenoidal surgery in Cushing disease (CD) from pituitary corticotroph tumors (CtTs) remains clinically challenging. Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) are antitumor drugs approved for clinical use, with the potential to affect adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH) hypersecretion by inhibiting pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) transcription. Objective Testing the efficacy of suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) on human and murine ACTH-secreting tumor (AtT-20) cells. Design Cell viability, ACTH secretion (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), apoptosis, and gene expression profile were investigated on AtT-20 cells. In vivo efficacy was examined in an athymic nude mouse AtT-20 xenograft model. SAHA efficacy against human-derived corticotroph tumor (hCtT) (n = 8) was tested in vitro. Setting National Institutes of Health. Intervention SAHA (0.5 to 8 µM). Main Outcome Measures AtT-20 and hCtT cell survival, in vitro/invivo ACTH measurements. Results SAHA (1 µM) reduced AtT-20 viability to 75% at 24 hours, 43% at 48 hours (analysis of variance; P = 0.002). Apoptosis was confirmed with elevated BAX/Bcl2 ratio and FACS. Intriguingly, early (3-hour) significant decline (70%; P < 0.0001) of secreted ACTH and diminished POMC transcription was observed with SAHA (1 µM). Microarray analysis revealed a direct association between liver X receptor alpha (LXRα) and POMC expression. Accordingly, SAHA reduced LXRα in AtT-20 cells but not in normal murine corticotrophs. Xenografted nude-mice tumor involution (126 ± 33/160 ± 35 vs 337 ± 49 mm3; P = 0.0005) was observed with 5-day intraperitoneal SAHA, with reversal of elevated ACTH (P < 0.0001). SAHA did not affect serum ACTH in nontumor mice. Lastly, we confirmed that SAHA (1 µM/24 h) decreased hCtT survival (78.92%; P = 0.0007) and ACTH secretion (83.64%; P = 0.03). Conclusion Our findings demonstrate SAHA’s efficacy in reducing survival and ACTH secretion in AtT-20 and hCtT cells, providing a potential intervention for recurrent/unremitting CD.