Suppressing the malignant phenotypes of glioma cells by lentiviral delivery of small hairpin RNA targeting hypoxia-inducible factor-1α.

Hypoxic microenvironment of solid tumors is known to shape malignant phenotypes of cancer cells through the dimeric transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1. In the present study, the therapeutic effect of targeting α subunit of HIF-1 in glioma cells via lentiviral delivery of small hairpin RNA (shRNA) was evaluated. Data from quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry demonstrated that HIF-1α was progressively upregulated during the development of gliomas.