A chemical genomics screen highlights the essential role of mitochondria in HIF-1 regulation

X Lin, CA David, JB Donnelly… - Proceedings of the …, 2008 - National Acad Sciences
X Lin, CA David, JB Donnelly, M Michaelides, NS Chandel, X Huang, U Warrior, F Weinberg
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2008National Acad Sciences
Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) plays an essential role in tumor development and
progression by regulating genes that are vital for proliferation, glycolysis, angiogenesis, and
metastasis. To identify strategies of targeting the HIF-1 pathway, we screened a siRNA
library against the entire druggable genome and a small-molecule library consisting of
691,200 compounds using a HIF-1 reporter cell line. Although the siRNA library screen
failed to reveal any druggable targets, the small-molecule library screen identified a class of …
Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) plays an essential role in tumor development and progression by regulating genes that are vital for proliferation, glycolysis, angiogenesis, and metastasis. To identify strategies of targeting the HIF-1 pathway, we screened a siRNA library against the entire druggable genome and a small-molecule library consisting of 691,200 compounds using a HIF-1 reporter cell line. Although the siRNA library screen failed to reveal any druggable targets, the small-molecule library screen identified a class of alkyliminophenylacetate compounds that inhibit hypoxia-induced HIF-1 reporter activity at single-digit nanomolar concentrations. These compounds were found to inhibit hypoxia but not deferoxamine-induced HIF-1α protein stabilization. Further analysis indicated that the alkyliminophenylacetate compounds likely inhibit the HIF-1 pathway through blocking the hypoxia-induced mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Strikingly, all of the nonalkyliminophenylacetate HIF-1 inhibitors identified from the small-molecule library screen were also found to target mitochondria like the alkyliminophenylacetate compounds. The exclusive enrichment of mitochondria inhibitors from a library of >600,000 diverse compounds by using the HIF-1 reporter assay highlights the essential role of mitochondria in HIF-1 regulation. These results also suggest that targeting mitochondrial ROS production might be a highly effective way of blocking HIF-1 activity in tumors.
National Acad Sciences