title: Down-regulation of HIF-1alpha by oncolytic reovirus infection independently of VHL and p53.
abstract: Many oncolytic viruses are currently being tested as potential cancer therapeutic agents. To be effective, these viruses must replicate and propagate efficiently through the tumor mass. However, it is possible that the hypoxia that characterizes many tumors may be an obstacle to viral therapy because of its inhibition of viral replication and propagation. We, therefore, decided to test how oncolytic reovirus and its target cells respond to hypoxia. We found that reovirus infection suppresses hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1alpha protein levels (but not transcript abundance) in colon cancer HCT116 cells under CoCl(2) or hypoxia. Reovirus infection was able to reduce HIF-1alpha levels in both von Hippel Lindau (VHL)-/- renal carcinoma A498 and p53-/- HCT116 cells, indicating that the decrease of HIF-1alpha mediated by reovirus requires neither VHL nor p53 proteins. However, treatment with the inhibitor MG132 restored HIF-1alpha levels, suggesting that reovirus-induced HIF-1alpha decrease needs proteosomal activity. A498 VHL-/- cells with constitutive expression of HIF-1alpha were relatively resistant to reovirus-induced apoptosis when compared with A498 VHL+/+ cells. However, we found that the use of YC-1 to target HIF-1alpha promoted reovirus-induced apoptosis in A498 VHL-/- cells. Accordingly, we propose that reovirus may be used together with YC-1 as a potential therapeutic agent against chemoresistant or radioresistant tumors that are hypoxic and show increased levels of HIF-1alpha.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cogno-Mechatronics Engineering, BK21 Nanofusion Technology Team, Pusan National University, Miryang, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: I-R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.forename: H-J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Min
authors.forename: E-H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ratakorn
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Jhun
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: H D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Youn
authors.forename: R N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.forename: Y-H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Chung
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D015153:Blotting, Western; D015687:Cell Hypoxia / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D015536:Down-Regulation; D045325:HCT116 Cells; D006801:Humans; D051795:Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D050504:Oncolytic Viruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000378:metabolism*; D051794:Von Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor Protein / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D051795:Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; D051794:Von Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor Protein