2008/07/03

The dual face of PHDs

A team at CIC bioGUNE in collaboration with investigators at the CNRS-UMR 6543 in France has proved that the PHDs, which are immediately inactivated by the lack of oxygen, become subsequently re-activated under chronic hypoxia. This feedback mechanism, by controlling the stability of the a subunit of the Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF), assures adaptation and survival during chronic hypoxic stress. These findings yield new insights into the suitable use of PHDs as therapeutic targets for pathologies like ischemia or tumour progression. These results have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).