EN
Sirtuins are a family of conserved enzymes that
are involved in physiological and pathological pathways
and have been investigated in relation to the ageing
process. There are seven different sirtuins in mammals
that are encoded by individual genes (SIRT1-7). Sirtuins
share a highly conserved catalytic domain, and they have
NAD+ dependent deacetylase activity and secondary ADPribosylase
activity in different proportions and on different
molecular targets. Sirtuins might be pharmacologically
modulated by small molecules that might represent a novel
class of “epigenetic” drugs. In fact, sirtuins’ deacetylase
activity may impact the epigenetic regulation network
acting on histones or affecting chromatin stability, while
the mono-ADP-ribosylase catalysis is less explored to this
respect. Here we review and discuss the potential impact
of sirtuin catalytic activities from the epigenetic pointof-
view, with a focus on age-related diseases (cancer,