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      Specific Inhibition of HIF Activity: Can Peptides Lead the Way?

      review-article
      1 , * , 1 , 1 , 2 , *
      Cancers
      MDPI
      hypoxia, HIF, HIF-1α, HIF inhibition, peptide inhibitors

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          Abstract

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          Cancer cells in solid tumors often experience lack of oxygen (hypoxia), which they overcome with the help of hypoxia inducible transcription factors (HIFs). When HIFs are activated, they stimulate the expression of many genes and cause the production of proteins that help cancer cells grow and migrate even in the presence of very little oxygen. Many experiments have shown that agents that block the activity of HIFs (HIF inhibitors) can prevent growth of cancer cells under hypoxia and, subsequently, hinder formation of malignant tumors or metastases. Most small chemical HIF inhibitors lack the selectivity required for development of safe anticancer drugs. On the other hand, peptides derived from HIFs themselves can be very selective HIF inhibitors by disrupting specific associations of HIFs with cellular components that are essential for HIF activation. This review discusses the nature of available peptide HIF inhibitors and their prospects as effective pharmaceuticals against cancer.

          Abstract

          Reduced oxygen availability (hypoxia) is a characteristic of many disorders including cancer. Central components of the systemic and cellular response to hypoxia are the Hypoxia Inducible Factors (HIFs), a small family of heterodimeric transcription factors that directly or indirectly regulate the expression of hundreds of genes, the products of which mediate adaptive changes in processes that include metabolism, erythropoiesis, and angiogenesis. The overexpression of HIFs has been linked to the pathogenesis and progression of cancer. Moreover, evidence from cellular and animal models have convincingly shown that targeting HIFs represents a valid approach to treat hypoxia-related disorders. However, targeting transcription factors with small molecules is a very demanding task and development of HIF inhibitors with specificity and therapeutic potential has largely remained an unattainable challenge. Another promising approach to inhibit HIFs is to use peptides modelled after HIF subunit domains known to be involved in protein–protein interactions that are critical for HIF function. Introduction of these peptides into cells can inhibit, through competition, the activity of endogenous HIFs in a sequence and, therefore also isoform, specific manner. This review summarizes the involvement of HIFs in cancer and the approaches for targeting them, with a special focus on the development of peptide HIF inhibitors and their prospects as highly-specific pharmacological agents.

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          Most cited references134

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          HIFalpha targeted for VHL-mediated destruction by proline hydroxylation: implications for O2 sensing.

          HIF (hypoxia-inducible factor) is a transcription factor that plays a pivotal role in cellular adaptation to changes in oxygen availability. In the presence of oxygen, HIF is targeted for destruction by an E3 ubiquitin ligase containing the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor protein (pVHL). We found that human pVHL binds to a short HIF-derived peptide when a conserved proline residue at the core of this peptide is hydroxylated. Because proline hydroxylation requires molecular oxygen and Fe(2+), this protein modification may play a key role in mammalian oxygen sensing.
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            PD-L1 is a novel direct target of HIF-1α, and its blockade under hypoxia enhanced MDSC-mediated T cell activation

            Hypoxia is a common feature of solid tumors (Semenza, 2011). Hypoxic zones in tumors attract immunosuppressive cells such as myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs; Corzo et al., 2010), tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs; Doedens et al., 2010; Imtiyaz et al., 2010), and regulatory T cells (T reg cells; Clambey et al., 2012). MDSCs are a heterogeneous group of relatively immature myeloid cells and several studies have described mechanisms of MDSC-mediated immune suppression (Gabrilovich et al., 2012). A large body of preclinical and clinical data indicates that antibody blockade of immune checkpoints can significantly enhance antitumor immunity (Pardoll, 2012; West et al., 2013). Recently, antibody-mediated blockade of preprogrammed death 1 (PD-1; Topalian et al., 2012) and its ligand, PD-L1 (Brahmer et al., 2012), was shown to result in durable tumor regression and prolonged stabilization of disease in patients with advanced cancers. PD-1, a cell surface glycoprotein with a structure similar to cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4), belongs to the B7 family of co-stimulatory/co-inhibitory molecules and plays a key part in immune regulation (Greenwald et al., 2005). PD-1 has two known ligands, PD-L1 (B7-H1) and PD-L2 (B7-DC). Although hypoxia has been shown to regulate the function and differentiation of MDSCs (Corzo et al., 2010), several major questions remain unresolved. The influence of hypoxia on the regulation of immune checkpoint receptors (PD-1 and CTLA-4) and their respective ligands (PD-L1, PD-L2, CD80, and CD86) on MDSCs remains largely obscure. Furthermore, the potential contribution of these immune checkpoint receptors and their respective ligands on MDSC function under hypoxia is still unknown. In the present study, we showed that hypoxia via hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) selectively up-regulated PD-L1 on MDSCs, but not other B7 family members, by binding directly to the HRE in the PD-L1 proximal promoter. Blockade of PD-L1 under hypoxia abrogated MDSC-mediated T cell suppression by modulating MDSCs cytokine production. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Differential expression of PD-L1 on tumor-infiltrating MDSCs versus splenic MDSCs and selective up-regulation of PD-L1 in splenic MDSCs under hypoxic stress We first compared the level of expression of PD-L1 and PD-L2 between splenic MDSCs and tumor-infiltrating MDSCs from tumor-bearing mice. We found that the percentage of PD-L1+ cells was significantly higher on tumor-infiltrating MDSCs as compared with splenic MDSC in B16-F10, LLC (Fig. 1 A), CT26, and 4T1 (Fig. 1 B) tumor models. No significant difference was found in the percentage of PD-L2+ cells in splenic MDSCs as compared with tumor-infiltrating MDSCs in four tumor models tested (Fig. 1 C). We did not observe any significant difference in the expression levels of other members of the B7 family such as CD80, CD86, PD-1, and CTLA-4 on MDSCs from spleen and tumor (unpublished data). Youn et al. (2008) previously observed no significant differences in the percentage of PD-L1+ or CD80+ cells within the splenic MDSCs from tumor-bearing mice and immature myeloid cells from naive tumor-free mice. However, by comparing the expression of immune checkpoint inhibitors between splenic and tumor-infiltrating MDSCs, we showed that there is a differential expression of PD-L1 on tumor-infiltrating MDSCs. Figure 1. Tumor-infiltrating MDSCs differentially express PD-L1 as compared with splenic MDSCs, and hypoxia selectively up-regulates PD-L1 on splenic MDSCs in tumor-bearing mice. Surface expression level of PD-L1 and PD-L2 on Gr1+ CD11b+ cells (MDSCs) from (B16-F10 and LLC; A; CT26 and 4T1; B) in spleens (black dotted line histogram) and tumor (black line histogram) as compared with isotype control (gray-shaded histogram) was analyzed by flow cytometry. (C) Statistically significant differences (indicated by asterisks) between tumor-infiltrating MDSCs and splenic MDSCs are shown (*, P 20 fold for HRE-4), comparable to their binding to an established HRE in VEGF, LDHA, and Glut1 genes. To determine whether this HIF-1α site (HRE-4) was a transcriptionally active HRE, MSC-1 cells were co-transfected with pGL4-hRluc/SV40 vector and pGL3 EV, pGL3 HRE-4, or pGL3 HRE-4 MUT vectors (Fig. 3 M) and grown under normoxia or hypoxia. After 48 h, firefly and renilla luciferase activities were measured. As shown in Fig. 3 N, hypoxia significantly increased the luciferase activity of HRE-4 reporter by more than threefold as compared with normoxia. More interestingly, the luciferase activity of HRE-4 MUT was significantly decreased (>50%) as compared with HRE-4 under hypoxia (Fig. 3 N). The results presented in Figs. 3 (H–N) demonstrate that PD-L1 is a direct HIF-1α target gene in MSC-1 cells. Thus, we provide evidence here that HIF-1α is a major regulator of PD-L1 mRNA and protein expression, and that HIF-1α regulates the expression of PD-L1 by binding directly to the HRE-4 in the PD-L1 proximal promoter. Blocking PD-L1 decreases MDSC-mediated T cell suppression under hypoxia by down-regulating MDSC IL-6 and IL-10 To directly test the functional consequences of hypoxia-induced up-regulation of PD-L1 in MDSC-mediated T cell suppression, the expression of PD-L1 was blocked on ex vivo MDSCs by using anti–PD-L1 monoclonal antibody. Hypoxia increased the ability of MDSCs to suppress both specific and nonspecific stimuli-mediated T cell proliferation (Fig. 4, A and B). Interestingly, blockade of PD-L1 under hypoxia significantly abrogated the suppressive activity of MDSCs in response to both nonspecific stimuli (anti-CD3/CD28 antibody; Fig. 4 A) and specific stimuli (TRP-2(180–88) peptide; Fig. 4 B). Under hypoxia, MDSCs acquired the ability to inhibit T cell function (Fig. 4, C and D) by decreasing the percentage of IFN-γ+ CD8+ and CD4+ T cells; whereas the percentage of IFN-γ+ CD8+ (Fig. 4 C) and IFN-γ+ CD4+ T cells (Fig. 4 D) significantly increased after PD-L1 blockade under hypoxic conditions. Thus, the immune suppressive function of MDSCs enhanced under hypoxia was abrogated after blocking PD-L1, and hypoxic up-regulation of PD-L1 on MDSCs is involved in mediating the suppressive action of MDSCs, at least in part, as we were not able to completely restore T cell proliferation and function after PD-L1 blockade on MDSCs under hypoxia. Figure 4. Blockade of PD-L1 under hypoxia down-regulates MDSC IL-6 and IL-10 and enhances T cell proliferation and function. MDSCs isolated from spleens of B16-F10 tumor-bearing mice were pretreated for 30 min on ice with 5 µg/ml control antibody (IgG) or antibody against PD-L1 (PDL1 Block) and co-cultured with splenocytes under normoxia and hypoxia for 72 h. (A and B) Effect of MDSC on proliferation of splenocytes stimulated with (A) anti-CD3/CD28 coated beads or (B) TRP-2(180–88) peptide under the indicated conditions. Cell proliferation was measured in triplicates by [3H]thymidine incorporation and expressed as counts per minute (CPM). (C and D) MDSCs were cultured with splenocytes from B16-F10 mice stimulated with anti-CD3/CD28. Intracellular IFN-γ production was evaluated by flow cytometry by gating on (C) CD3+CD8+ IFN-γ+ and (D) CD3+CD4+ IFN-γ+ populations. Statistically significant differences (indicated by asterisks) are shown (**, P 95% as evaluated by FACS analysis. MDSC functional assays. For evaluation of T cell proliferation, splenocytes from B16-F10 mice were plated into U-bottom 96-well plates along with MDSCs at different ratios (50,000 MDSC:200,000 splenocytes/well). Plates were stimulated with either anti-CD3/CD28 beads (Miltenyi Biotec) or TRP-2 180–88 peptide for 72 h at 37°C. Co-cultures were pulsed with thymidine (1 µCi/well; Promega) for 16–18 h before harvesting, and [3H]thymidine uptake was counted using Packard’s TopCount NXT liquid scintillation counter and expressed as counts per minute (CPM). For assessment of T cell functions, MDSCs co-cultured with splenocytes from B16-F10 mice were stimulated with anti-CD3/CD28 beads. After 72 h, intracellular IFN-γ production was evaluated by flow cytometry by gating on CD3+CD8+ IFN-γ+ and CD3+CD4+ IFN-γ+ populations. MDSCs cytokine production (ELISA). MDSCs isolated from spleens of B16-F10 tumor-bearing mice were pretreated for 30 min on ice with 5 μg/ml control antibody (IgG) or Anti-Mouse PD-L1 (B7-H1) Functional Grade Purified antibody 5 µg/ml (clone MIH5; eBioscience; PDL1 Block) and cultured under normoxia and hypoxia for 72 h. Supernatants were collected and the secretion of IL-6, IL-10, and IL-12p70 (eBioscience) was determined by ELISA. ChIP assay. ChIP was performed with lysates prepared from MSC-1 by using SimpleChIP Enzymatic Chromatin IP kit (Cell Signaling Technology). SYBR Green RT-qPCR was performed using the primers detailed in Table S1. Arginase enzymatic activity and NO (nitric oxide) production. Arginase activity was measured in MDSC cell lysates, and for NO production, culture supernatants were mixed with Greiss reagent and nitrite concentrations were determined as described earlier (Youn et al., 2008). Luciferase reporter assay. A 653-bp section corresponding to mouse PD-L1 promoter containing HRE4 sequence was inserted into the NheI–XhoI sites of pGL3-Basic vector (Promega). Mutation of HRE4 was performed by site-directed mutagenesis and verified by sequencing. A 56-bp mouse PD-L1 gene sequence was inserted into the Bgl II site of pGL3-Promoter (Promega). MSC-1 cells were co-transfected with 0.2 µg of pGL4-hRluc/SV40 vector (which contains renilla luciferase sequences downstream of the SV40 promoter) and 1 µg of pGL3 empty vector, pGL3 HRE-4, or pGL3 HRE-4 MUT vectors in 6-well plates with Lipofectamine 2000 (Invitrogen) in OPTIMEM (Invitrogen) medium and grown under normoxia or hypoxia. After 48 h, firefly and Renilla luciferase activities were measured using the Dual-Luciferase Reporter assay (Promega) and the ratio of firefly/Renilla luciferase was determined. Statistics. Data were analyzed with GraphPad Prism. Student’s t test was used for single comparisons. Online supplemental material. Table S1 shows genomic oligonucleotide primers used for amplification of immunoprecipitated DNA samples from ChIP assays. Online supplemental material is available at http://www.jem.org/cgi/content/full/jem.20131916/DC1. Supplementary Material Supplemental Material
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              Defining the role of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 in cancer biology and therapeutics.

              Adaptation of cancer cells to their microenvironment is an important driving force in the clonal selection that leads to invasive and metastatic disease. O2 concentrations are markedly reduced in many human cancers compared with normal tissue, and a major mechanism mediating adaptive responses to reduced O2 availability (hypoxia) is the regulation of transcription by hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1). This review summarizes the current state of knowledge regarding the molecular mechanisms by which HIF-1 contributes to cancer progression, focusing on (1) clinical data associating increased HIF-1 levels with patient mortality; (2) preclinical data linking HIF-1 activity with tumor growth; (3) molecular data linking specific HIF-1 target gene products to critical aspects of cancer biology and (4) pharmacological data showing anticancer effects of HIF-1 inhibitors in mouse models of human cancer.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Academic Editor
                Journal
                Cancers (Basel)
                Cancers (Basel)
                cancers
                Cancers
                MDPI
                2072-6694
                22 January 2021
                February 2021
                : 13
                : 3
                : 410
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Laboratory of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece; ghah@ 123456med.uth.gr
                [2 ]Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC H4A 3T2, Canada
                Author notes
                [* ]Correspondence: mylonis@ 123456med.uth.gr (I.M.); simos@ 123456med.uth.gr (G.S.)
                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0893-6618
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4771-4196
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5453-3185
                Article
                cancers-13-00410
                10.3390/cancers13030410
                7865418
                33499237
                de1a90ae-a44a-4f60-9fca-487c529eb881
                © 2021 by the authors.

                Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

                History
                : 21 December 2020
                : 16 January 2021
                Categories
                Review

                hypoxia,hif,hif-1α,hif inhibition,peptide inhibitors
                hypoxia, hif, hif-1α, hif inhibition, peptide inhibitors

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