The role of hypoxia inducible factor-1 in cell metabolism – a possible target in cancer therapy

Abstract

In many cancer types, intratumoural hypoxia is linked to increased expression and activity of the transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF-1α), which is associated with poor patient prognosis. This increased the interest in HIF-1α as a cancer drug target. Further, HIF-1α has also a central role in the adaptive cellular programme responding to hypoxia in normal tissues. Many of the HIF-1α-regulated genes encode enzymes of metabolic pathways. Therefore, studying the link and the feedback mechanisms between metabolism and HIF-1α is of major importance to find new and specific therapeutic strategies.

Keywords::

• hypoxia
• hypoxia-inducible factor
• von Hippel-Lindau tumour suppressor

Acknowledgements

The authors apologise to all researchers who excellently contributed to the field and whose work was not cited due to space limitations. This work was supported by grants from the DFG GO709/4-4, the 6th European framework program (EUROXY), Fondation Leducq to AG and by the grants DFG SFB 402 A1, GRK 335, Fonds der Chemischen Industrie and Deutsche Krebshilfe 106929 to T Kietzmann. RS Bel Aiba and EY Dimova contributed equally to this paper.