Mocetinostat (MGCD-0103)

Mechanism of action

From the NCI Drug Dictionary: A rationally designed, orally available, Class 1-selective, small molecule, 2-aminobenzamide HDAC inhibitor with potential antineoplastic activity. Mocetinostat binds to and inhibits Class 1 isoforms of HDAC, specifically HDAC 1, 2 and 3, which may result in epigenetic changes in tumor cells and so tumor cell death; although the exact mechanism has yet to be defined, tumor cell death may occur through the induction of apoptosis, differentiation, cell cycle arrest, inhibition of DNA repair, upregulation of tumor suppressors, down regulation of growth factors, oxidative stress, and autophagy, among others.

Preliminary data

Classical Hodgkin lymphoma

  1. Younes A, Oki Y, Bociek RG, Kuruvilla J, Fanale M, Neelapu S, Copeland A, Buglio D, Galal A, Besterman J, Li Z, Drouin M, Patterson T, Ward MR, Paulus JK, Ji Y, Medeiros LJ, Martell RE. Mocetinostat for relapsed classical Hodgkin's lymphoma: an open-label, single-arm, phase 2 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2011 Dec;12(13):1222-8. Epub 2011 Oct 25. link to original article link to PMC article PubMed

Also known as

  • Code name: MGCD-0103