Neuroendocrine neoplasms such as paragangliomas (PGLs) are particularly appealing for understanding the cancer metabolic adjustments because of their associations with deregulations of metabolic enzymes, such as succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), and the von Hippel Lindau (VHL) gene involved in HIF-1α stabilization.
Although somatic VHL mutations have been described for some time, more-recent cancer genomic studies have identified mutations in epigenetic regulatory genes and demonstrated marked intra-tumour heterogeneity, which could have prognostic, predictive and therapeutic relevance.
HIF-stabilizing mutations have been detected in the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) gene, as well as in other genes, such as succinate dehydrogenase (SDHx), fumarate hydratase (FH) and transcription elongation factor B subunit 1 (TCEB1), as well as the gene that encodes HIF2α itself: EPAS1<sup>HIF2α</sup> Importantly, the recent discovery of <i>EPAS1</i> mutations in PPGLs and the results of comprehensive <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i> studies revealing their oncogenic roles characterized a hitherto unknown direct mechanism of HIF2α activation in human cancer.
The Cancer Genome Atlas published data set was queried (http://cbioportal.org) for clear cell renal cell carcinoma tumors lacking VHL gene mutation and chromosome 3p loss, for which whole-slide images were reviewed.
Yao and colleagues elucidate how VHL loss contributes to chromatin alteration at both gene promoters and enhancers/superenhancers, in both an HIF-dependent as well as independent manner, and how this may provide additional targets for therapeutic intervention in advanced ccRCC.<i>Cancer Discov; 7(11); 1221-3.
Von Hippel-Landau (VHL) protein is a potent tumor suppressor regulating numerous pathways that drive cancer, but mutations in VHL are restricted to limited subsets of malignancies.
Sequencing of 48 genes implicated in cancer revealed that only VHL, TP53, and PTEN were mutated at a noticeable frequency (51%, 9%, and 9%, respectively).
Under the fixed-effects model, the pooled OR from seven studies including 596 RCC and 294 nonmalignant samples showed that VHL promoter hypermethylation was significantly higher in cancer than in controls (OR = 7.93, 95% CI = 2.84- 22.15, P < 0.001).
This type of cancer is well characterized at the genomic and transcriptomic level and is associated with a loss of VHL that results in stabilization of HIF1.
According to in vitro and preclinical mouse studies, 2'-hydroxyflavanone can both protect the VHL locus and prevent the progression of VHL-mutant cancer.
The hypoxia-inducible factor (Hif)-1α (Hif-1α) and Hif-2α (Epas1) have a critical role in both normal development and cancer. von Hippel Lindau (Vhl) protein, encoded by a tumor suppressor gene, is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that targets Hif-1α and Epas1 to the proteasome for degradation.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the inhibitory mechanism of this pathway acting through the tumor suppressor von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) protein in glioma cancer stem cells.
Although missense mutations of the von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL) gene are the most common germline mutation underlying this heritable cancer syndrome, the mechanism of tumorigenesis is unknown.
However, now we describe a new homozygous VHL exon 2 mutation of the VHL gene:(c.413C>T):P138L, which is associated in the affected homozygote with congenital polycythemia but not in her, or her-heterozygous relatives, with cancer or other VHL syndrome tumors.
Recurrent patterns of DNA methylation in the ZNF154, CASP8, and VHL promoters across a wide spectrum of human solid epithelial tumors and cancer cell lines.
A subset of relevant clinically observed mutations to pVHL are thought to cause weaker binding of HIF-1α and are associated with cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
We observed a much higher rate of indel mutations in the affected cases and identified recurrent truncating indels in several cancer genes such as VHL, PBRM1, and JARID1C.
Renal or kidney cancer accounts for about 3% of all cancer cases reported each year in the U.S. Molecular signatures that define the cancer, such as the loss of functional VHL, are found in both sporadic and familial cases of cancer.
Pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas are neuroendocrine tumors that occur in the context of inherited cancer syndromes in ∼30% of cases and are linked to germline mutations in the VHL, RET, NF1, SDHA, SDHB, SDHC, SDHD, SDHAF2 and TMEM127 genes.
Variation within angiogenesis was most strongly associated with survival time overall (P = 0.03) and among patients with serous cancer (P = 0.05), particularly for EIF2B5 rs4912474 (all patients HR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.54-0.89; P = 0.004), VEGFC rs17697305 (serous subtype HR, 2.29; 95% CI, 1.34-3.92; P = 0.003), and four SNPs in VHL.
A suite of recent papers convincingly linking cilia to hedgehog signalling, platelet-derived growth factor signalling, Wnt signalling and the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor protein has rapidly expanded the knowledge base connecting cilia to cancer.
To provide a comprehensive, thorough analysis of somatic mutation and promoter hypermethylation of the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) gene in the cancer genome, unique to clear cell renal cancer (ccRCC).