We recently investigated the role of von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) mutation and the subsequent induction of hypoxia-inducible factor 2α (HIF-2α) in the regulation of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) susceptibility to natural killer (NK) cell-mediated killing. We demonstrated that the resistance of VHL-mutated RCC cell line 786-0 to NK-mediated lysis requires HIF-2α and ITPR1, a direct novel target of HIF-2α, through the activation of autophagy in target cells by NK-derived signals.
Keywords: HIF-2α; ITPR1; NK cell; autophagy; clear cell renal cell carcinoma; pVHL.