Organic chemistry

Melanoma

Carcinogenesis

Protein kinase B

Biology

Gene

Cancer

Wnt signaling pathway

microRNA

Hypoxia-inducible factors

Chemistry

Metastasis

Angiogenesis

HIF1A

Signal transduction

Cell biology

Cancer research

Oxygen

Genetics

Medicine

Hypoxia (environmental)

PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway

Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy

Adaptation to the loss of O2 is regulated via the activity of hypoxia-inducible factors such as Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1 (HIF-1). HIF-1 acts as a main transcriptional mediator in the tissue hypoxia response that regulates over 1000 genes related to low oxygen tension. The role of HIF-1α in oncogenic processes includes angiogenesis, tumor metabolism, cell proliferation, and metastasis, which has been examined in various malignancies, such as melanoma. Melanoma is accompanied by a high death rate and a cancer type whose incidence has risen over the last decades. The linkage between O2 loss and melanogenesis had extensively studied over decades. Recent studies revealed that HIF-1α contributes to melanoma progression via different signaling pathways such as PI3K/Akt/mTOR, RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK, JAK/STAT, Wnt/β-catenin, Notch, and NF-κB. Also, various microRNAs (miRs) are known to mediate the HIF-1α role in melanoma. Therefore, HIF-1α offers a diagnostic/prognostic biomarker and a candidate for targeted therapy in melanoma.

The role of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1alpha and its signaling in melanoma