Håkan Axelson
Research team manager
Direct regulation of GAS6/AXL signaling by HIF promotes renal metastasis through SRC and MET.
Author
Summary, in English
Dysregulation of the von Hippel-Lindau/hypoxia-inducible transcription factor (HIF) signaling pathway promotes clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) progression and metastasis. The protein kinase GAS6/AXL signaling pathway has recently been implicated as an essential mediator of metastasis and receptor tyrosine kinase crosstalk in cancer. Here we establish a molecular link between HIF stabilization and induction of AXL receptor expression in metastatic ccRCC. We found that HIF-1 and HIF-2 directly activate the expression of AXL by binding to the hypoxia-response element in the AXL proximal promoter. Importantly, genetic and therapeutic inactivation of AXL signaling in metastatic ccRCC cells reversed the invasive and metastatic phenotype in vivo. Furthermore, we define a pathway by which GAS6/AXL signaling uses lateral activation of the met proto-oncogene (MET) through SRC proto-oncogene nonreceptor tyrosine kinase to maximize cellular invasion. Clinically, AXL expression in primary tumors of ccRCC patients correlates with aggressive tumor behavior and patient lethality. These findings provide an alternative model for SRC and MET activation by growth arrest-specific 6 in ccRCC and identify AXL as a therapeutic target driving the aggressive phenotype in renal clear cell carcinoma.
Department/s
- Division of Translational Cancer Research
- Kidney cancer research group
- BioCARE: Biomarkers in Cancer Medicine improving Health Care, Education and Innovation
Publishing year
2014
Language
English
Pages
13373-13378
Publication/Series
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume
111
Issue
37
Links
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Topic
- Cancer and Oncology
Status
Published
Research group
- Kidney cancer research group
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1091-6490