HIF-1, like the hormone estrogen, is a master regulatory transcription factor, meaning that it controls the expression of a vast number of genes representing various functions. HIF-1 is known to regulate 30 genes, but it may regulate as many as 100 genes, says Arbeit. The more scientists learn about the role of the genes in such molecular pathways the more opportunity they have for learning to manipulate them to treat disease.

A surgeon by training, Arbeit has seen the impact of both unwanted blood vessel growth, as in cancer, and oxygen-starved tissue, as in recalcitrant wounds.

I dont ascribe to the hope for a magic bullet for treating disease, he says, but targeting one molecule sitting at the head of an interlocking genetic network is a powerful therapeutic concept.

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Contact: Jennifer OBrien
jobrien@pubaff.ucsf.edu
415-476-2557
University of California - San Francisco
26-Nov-2001