Recent advances in HDAC-targeted imaging probes for cancer detection

Histone Deacetylases (HDACs) are abnormally high expressed in various cancers and play a crucial role in regulating gene expression. While HDAC-targeted inhibitors have been rapidly developed and approved in the last twenty years, noninvasive monitoring and visualizing the expression levels of HDACs in tumor tissues might help to early diagnosis in cancer and predict the response to HDAC-targeted cancer therapy. In this review, we summarize the recent advancements in the development of HDAC-targeted probes and their applications in cancer imaging and image-guided surgery. We also discuss the design strategies, advantages and disadvantages of these probes. We hope that this review will provide guidance for the design of HDAC-targeted imaging probes and clinical applications in future.