BioProject

The hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) system orchestrates cellular responses to hypoxia in animals. More...

The hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) system orchestrates cellular responses to hypoxia in animals. HIF is an α/β-heterodimeric transcription factor that regulates the expression of hundreds of genes in a context dependent manner. A hypoxia-sensing component of the HIF system involves oxygen-dependent catalysis by the HIF hydroxylases; in humans there are three HIF prolyl hydroxylases (PHD1-3) and an asparaginyl hydroxylase (FIH). PHD catalysis regulates HIFα levels and FIH catalysis regulates HIF activity. How differences in HIFα hydroxylation status relate to variations in the induction of HIF target gene transcription is unknown. We report studies using small molecule inhibitors of the HIF hydroxylases to investigate the extent to which HIF target gene upregulation is induced by reduced PHD catalysis. The results reveal substantial differences in the role of prolyl- and asparaginyl-hydroxylation in regulating hypoxia responsive genes in cells. Selective PHD inhibitors with different structural scaffolds behave similarly. However, under the tested conditions, a broad-spectrum 2OG dioxygenase inhibitor is a better mimic of the transcriptional response to hypoxia than the selective PHD inhibitors, consistent with an important role for FIH in the hypoxic transcriptional response. Indeed, combined application of selective PHD and FIH inhibitors resulted in transcriptional induction of a subset of genes that were not fully responsive to PHD inhibition alone. Thus, for the therapeutic regulation of HIF target genes, it is important to consider both PHD and FIH activity, and in the case of some sets of target genes, simultaneous inhibition of the PHDs and FIH catalysis may be preferable. Less...