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Chang et al. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2019;5:78 Journal of Cancer
DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2019.31 Metastasis and Treatment

Review Open Access

Histone chaperone FACT and curaxins: effects on
genome structure and function

Han-Wen Chang , Ekaterina V. Nizovtseva , Sergey V. Razin , Tim Formosa , Katerina V. Gurova , Vasily
4
2,3
5
1
1
M. Studitsky 1,3
1 Cancer Epigenetics Program, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA 19111, USA.
2 Institute of Gene Biology RAS, Moscow 119334, Russia.
3 Biology Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119992, Russia.
4 Department of Biochemistry, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah 84132, USA.
5 Department of Cell Stress Biology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY 14263, USA.
Correspondence to: Prof. Vasily M. Studitsky, Cancer Epigenetics Program, Fox Chase Cancer Center, 333 Cottman Ave.,
Philadelphia, PA 19111, USA. E-mail: vasily.studitsky@fccc.edu

How to cite this article: Chang HW, Nizovtseva EV, Razin SV, Formosa T, Gurova KV, Studitsky VM. Histone chaperone FACT
and curaxins: effects on genome structure and function. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2019;5:78.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2019.31

Received: 2 Sep 2019 First Decision: 4 Nov 2019 Revised: 12 Nov 2019 Accepted: 14 Nov 2019 Published: 29 Nov 2019

Science Editor: Godefridus J. Peters Copy Editor: Jing-Wen Zhang Production Editor: Tian Zhang

Abstract
The histone chaperone facilitates chromatin transcription (FACT) plays important roles in essentially every
chromatin-associated process and is an important indirect target of the curaxin class of anti-cancer drugs.
Curaxins are aromatic compounds that intercalate into DNA and can trap FACT in bulk chromatin, thus interfering
with its distribution and its functions in cancer cells. Recent studies have provided mechanistic insight into how
FACT and curaxins cooperate to promote unfolding of nucleosomes and chromatin fibers, resulting in genome-
wide disruption of contact chromatin domain boundaries, perturbation of higher-order chromatin organization,
and global dysregulation of gene expression. Here, we discuss the implications of these insights for cancer biology.

Keywords: Genomics, transcription, nucleosomes, chromatin structure

INTRODUCTION
Facilitates chromatin transcription (FACT) is a highly conserved histone chaperone that participates
[1]
[2-8]
in multiple physiological processes including transcription , DNA replication [9-13] , DNA repair [14-17] ,
© The Author(s) 2019. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
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