New Bioluminescent HDAC Assays that are up to 100-fold More Sensitive than Comparable Fluorescence-Based Assays

Promega Corporation announced today the launch of highly sensitive bioluminescent assays for the measurement of the relative activities of histone deacetylases (HDAC) for basic research, screening and drug discovery.

The new HDAC-Glo™ and SIRT-Glo™ Assays and Screening Systems use a single-reagent-addition, add-mix-measure protocol for easy implementation in bench top to high throughput screening applications, reducing labor and time to results. The systems speed up data acquisition times, and provide 10 to 100-fold higher sensitivity than comparable fluorescence assays. HDACs are key epigenetic regulators of gene transcription and an important new target class of enzymes in drug discovery epigenetics programs aimed at therapeutic areas such as oncology, metabolic diseases, aging and neurological disorders.

The HDAC-Glo(TM) Assay is broadly useful for class I and II HDAC enzymes in cells, cell extracts, or purified enzyme; the SIRT-Glo™ Assay is broadly useful for NAD+-dependent class III HDAC purified enzymes (Sirtuins or SIRTs). The assays use Promega’s patented Ultra-Glo™ recombinant firefly luciferase technology in an add-mix-measure format where the amount of light produced correlates to HDAC enzyme activity. The assays have broad linearity and high sensitivity minimizing the amount of enzyme required and improving the limits of detection for screening applications. The assays are completed in 15-45 minutes and produce a signal half-life greater than three hours, allowing for batch processing of multi-well assay plates. The cell-based HDAC-Glo Assay enables multiplexed viability assays to be performed for applications such as scaffold profiling or target-specific potency evaluation.

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