Department of Biochemistry, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.
Department of Biochemistry, Medicinal Biochemistry, Nanomedicine & Toxicology Laboratory, Landmark University, Omu-Aran 251101, Nigeria.
Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2019 Aug 14;2019:8547846. doi: 10.1155/2019/8547846. eCollection 2019.
Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) are transcription factors that activate the transcription of genes necessary to circumvent to hypoxic (low oxygen level) environments. In carcinogenesis, HIFs play a critical role. Indeed, HIF-1 has been validated as a promising target for novel cancer therapeutics, even as clinical investigations have linked increased levels of HIF-1 with aggressive cancer progression as well as poor patient prognosis. More so, inhibiting HIF-1 activity restricted cancer progression. Therefore, HIF-1 is a viable target for cancer therapy. This may be expected considering the fact that cancer cells are known to be hypoxic. In order to survive the hypoxic microenvironment, cancer cells activate several biochemical pathways via the HIF-1. Additionally, cellular and molecular insights have proved prospects of the HIF-1 pathway for the development of novel anticancer treatment strategies. The biochemical importance of hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) cannot be overemphasized as carcinogenesis, cancer progression, and HIFs are intricately linked. Therefore, this review highlights the significance of these linkages and also the prospects of HIFs as an alternative source of cancer therapies.
缺氧诱导因子 (HIFs) 是转录因子，可激活适应低氧（低氧水平）环境所需基因的转录。在致癌作用中，HIFs 起着关键作用。事实上，HIF-1 已被验证为新型癌症治疗的有前途的靶点，即使临床研究已经将 HIF-1 水平的升高与侵袭性癌症进展以及患者预后不良联系起来。更重要的是，抑制 HIF-1 活性限制了癌症的进展。因此，HIF-1 是癌症治疗的可行靶点。考虑到癌细胞通常处于缺氧状态，这可能是意料之中的。为了在低氧微环境中存活，癌细胞通过 HIF-1 激活了几种生化途径。此外，细胞和分子研究已经证明了 HIF-1 途径在开发新型抗癌治疗策略方面的前景。缺氧诱导因子 (HIFs) 的生化重要性怎么强调都不为过，因为致癌作用、癌症进展和 HIFs 是紧密相关的。因此，本综述强调了这些联系的重要性，以及 HIFs 作为癌症治疗替代来源的前景。
