---
title: "A new strategy for tumours: “suffocation”"
description: The HIF-1α gene helps melanoma and other forms of cancer to develop when there is very little oxygen. If deactivated, the tumour cells cannot survive.
---

[Blog | IBSA Foundation ](https://www.ibsafoundation.org/en/blog)

# [A new strategy for tumours: “suffocation”](https://www.ibsafoundation.org/en/blog/a-new-strategy-for-tumours-suffocation)

 Written by [Paolo Rossi Castelli](https://www.ibsafoundation.org/en/blog/author/paolo-rossi-castelli) | 15 Jul 2021

All eyes are on the HIF-1α gene, which helps the melanoma and other forms of cancer to develop even when there is very little oxygen. When deactivated, the tumour cells cannot survive.

A technique whereby tumours are literally suffocated may well, in the coming years, become a new strategy for **combatting** cancer, particularly **melanoma**, as well as other types, and for rendering immunotherapy more effective.

The idea has been prompted by a well-known property of tumour cells: their ability to use even tiny amounts of **oxygen** with the utmost efficiency, enabling many types of cancer (unlike healthy cells) to **survive even in hypoxia **(namely a lack of oxygen) in the surrounding micro-environment (the **hypoxia** being partly down to the rapid growth of the tumour, which “steals” available oxygen). As a result, experiments are now underway on how to actually suffocate tumours.

Recent studies have in fact shown that certain types of tumour develop better in a state of hypoxia, because the **lack of oxygen prevents the immune system from intervening**, leaving the way open for the cancerous cells. The way tumours manage this strategy is highly complex (and indeed daunting).

But it has recently been discovered that a **gene **called **HIF-1α** (Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1 alpha) plays a **key role **in all of this. Amongst other things, research into HIF-1α and the way in which cells (not just tumour cells) use oxygen earned three scientists - William G. Kaelin Jr, Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza - the **Nobel Prize** for medicine in 2019.

**Genetic engineering techniques**

In the wake of these studies, recent times have seen the spotlight on the role which HIF-1α can play in the growth (or suppression) of tumours. Many international research groups are now actively working on this field.

One interesting study has just been published in the [Oncogene](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41388-021-01846-x) scientific magazine of the Nature group: its authors, from Luxembourg, France and the United Arab Emirates attempted to inhibit the **HIF-1α gene** using **genetic engineering** to trigger destruction of the tumour cells, which were left without oxygen.

Using a **technique **known as **CRISPR**, the academics **deactivated HIF-1α in the melanoma cancer cells** and saw that, in the laboratory, growth of the tumour then halted, and the **immune system’s lymphocytes **appeared to be generated in far greater numbers than when HIF-1α was fully enabled.

It is easy to deduce that the addition of potential **anti HIF-1α drugs** may at the very least **enhance immunotherapy,** and more generally actually **slow the growth of the tumour**.

**Test on 500 patients**

The data obtained in the laboratory have also been indirectly confirmed in clinical trials.

In analysing the characteristics of almost 500 melanoma patients, researchers particularly noted that those with the **worst prognosis** were also patients displaying the **highest hypoxia level in the tumour mass**, causing them to **display poor reactions to immunotherapy. **

**Melanoma** is in fact a type of **skin cancer **which develops from **melanocytes**, cells which are responsible for producing melanin (the pigment which, amongst other things, causes skin to tan).

Owing to their rapid growth rate and low blood flow, melanomas often feature large areas of hypoxia.

Experiments using HIF-1α inhibitors will be continuing already in the coming months. The hope is that direct-action drugs against this gene will soon be produced and used in **conjunction **with other forms of therapy, or even on their own.

[View full post](https://www.ibsafoundation.org/en/blog/a-new-strategy-for-tumours-suffocation)

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