{"entity":{"id":"hdac4","kind":"target","name":"HDAC4","aka":["histone deacetylase 4","Histone deacetylase 4","KIAA0288","HDAC-A","HDACA","HD4","HA6116","HDAC-4"],"tldr":"HDAC4 (Histone deacetylase 4) is a gene that drives cell growth when it is altered. The public catalogues list it as a drug target and an oncogene driver, and an approved or late-stage drug is recorded against it. Tied to Skin cancer, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Multiple myeloma and 1 more.","summary":"Responsible for the deacetylation of lysine residues on the N-terminal part of the core histones (H2A, H2B, H3 and H4). Histone deacetylation gives a tag for epigenetic repression and plays an important role in transcriptional regulation, cell cycle progression and developmental events. Histone deacetylases act via the formation of large multiprotein complexes.\n\nOpen Targets scores its association with cancer at 0.69 (direct and indirect evidence; datatypes literature 0.97, genetic association 0.42, somatic mutation 0.40, clinical 0.95). IntOGen calls it a driver in 1 cohort (1 activating, 0 loss-of-function), covering Thymoma.","asOf":"2026-09-23","links":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:14063","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:14063"},{"label":"UniProt P56524","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P56524/entry"},{"label":"NCBI Gene 9759","url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/9759"},{"label":"Ensembl ENSG00000068024","url":"https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000068024"}],"tags":["cancer-genes-wave"],"related":["open-targets","intogen"],"cancers":["skin-cancer","non-hodgkin-lymphoma","multiple-myeloma","thymoma"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":["Written by scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts from CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC and UniProt; the function text is UniProt's, condensed and in UK spelling. Roles: Open Targets known-drug datatype score 0.95; IntOGen calls it an activating (Act) driver in 1 cohort. Evidence tier \"approved-drug\" is the strongest of those signals.","Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate."],"provenance":{"editedBy":"scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts (CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC, UniProt)","editedOn":"2026-09-23"},"symbol":"HDAC4","role":["drug-target","oncogene-driver"],"evidenceTier":"approved-drug","sources":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:14063","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:14063","note":"approved symbol, name, aliases, locus and cross-references (hgnc_complete_set.txt)"},{"label":"UniProt P56524","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P56524/entry","note":"protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000068024","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000068024/associations","note":"association with cancer (MONDO_0004992) 0.69; per-cancer scores at or above 0.5: plasma cell myeloma 0.55, non-Hodgkin lymphoma 0.57, skin cancer 0.57 (GraphQL API, CC0)"},{"label":"IntOGen HDAC4","url":"https://www.intogen.org/search?gene=HDAC4","note":"driver in 1 cohort (Act 1, LoF 0); Compendium_Cancer_Genes.tsv release 20240920, CC0 1.0"}],"specificity":"tumour-specific","distribution":"few-types","specificityNote":"Tumour-specific alteration: the catalogues call it an oncogene driver (IntOGen cohort analysis finds it activated more often than chance); what a medicine would aim at or exploit is the altered form or its loss, absent from normal cells; no corpus medicine is aimed at it yet. HPA HDAC4: RNA tissue enhanced (skeletal muscle 33 nTPM, tongue 25 nTPM); blood lineage lineage enriched (granulocytes 47 nTPM); high antibody staining in 21 normal tissues; highest cancer staining thyroid cancer (3 of 4 high). Distribution: 4 cancer families in the corpus carry a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Skin cancer (all types), Lymphoma, Multiple myeloma, Thymoma and thymic carcinoma); Open Targets associates it with 2 specific cancer types at or above 0.5 (plasma cell myeloma, peripheral T-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified). (Rule 6 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"UniProt P56524","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P56524/entry","note":"protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)"},{"label":"IntOGen HDAC4","url":"https://www.intogen.org/search?gene=HDAC4","note":"driver in 1 cohort (Act 1, LoF 0); Compendium_Cancer_Genes.tsv release 20240920, CC0 1.0"},{"label":"Human Protein Atlas HDAC4 tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000068024-HDAC4/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000068024 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000068024/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:14063","ensembl":"ENSG00000068024","uniprot":"P56524","entrez":"9759","firstDescribed":1997,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Ohara et al, DNA Res, 1997, \"Construction and characterization of human brain cDNA libraries suitable for analysis of cDNA clones encoding relatively large proteins\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9179496/","biology":"Responsible for the deacetylation of lysine residues on the N-terminal part of the core histones (H2A, H2B, H3 and H4). Histone deacetylation gives a tag for epigenetic repression and plays an important role in transcriptional regulation, cell cycle progression and developmental events. Histone deacetylases act via the formation of large multiprotein complexes. Involved in muscle maturation via its interaction with the myocyte enhancer factors such as MEF2A, MEF2C and MEF2D. Involved in the MTA1-mediated epigenetic regulation of ESR1 expression in breast cancer. Deacetylates HSPA1A and HSPA1B at 'Lys-77' leading to their preferential binding to co-chaperone STUB1. Location: Nucleus; Cytoplasm (UniProt). Locus 2q37.3 (HGNC).","whereFound":["Skin cancer: Open Targets association 0.57 with skin cancer (MONDO_0002898)","Non-Hodgkin lymphoma: Open Targets association 0.57 with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (MONDO_0018908)","Multiple myeloma: Open Targets association 0.55 with plasma cell myeloma (MONDO_0009693)","Thymoma: IntOGen driver in 1 cohort (THYM)"],"targetClass":"oncogene","prevalence":[]},"route":"/targets/hdac4/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"intogen","kind":"collection","name":"IntOGen","route":"/collections/intogen/"},{"id":"open-targets","kind":"collection","name":"Open Targets Platform","route":"/collections/open-targets/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"multiple-myeloma","kind":"cancer","name":"Multiple myeloma","route":"/cancers/multiple-myeloma/"},{"id":"non-hodgkin-lymphoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (all types)","route":"/cancers/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/"},{"id":"skin-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Skin cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/skin-cancer/"},{"id":"thymoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Thymoma (WHO types A, AB, B1, B2 and B3)","route":"/cancers/thymoma/"}]}}