Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α plays an important role in cancer progression. In various cancers, including thyroid cancer, overexpression of HIF-1α is related to poor prognosis or treatment response. However, few studies have investigated the role of HIF-1α inhibition in thyroid cancer progression. We evaluated the utility of the HIF-1α inhibitor IDF-11774 in vitro utilizing two thyroid cancer cell lines, K1 and BCPAP. Both cell lines were tested to elucidate the effects of IDF-11774 on cell proliferation and migration using soft agar and invasion assays. Here, we found that a reduction of HIF-1α expression in BCPAP cells was observed after treatment with IDF-11774 in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, cell proliferation, migration, and anchorage-independent growth were effectively inhibited by IDF-11774 in BCPAP cells but not in K1 cells. Additionally, invasion of BCPAP but not K1 cells was controlled with IDF-11774 in a dose-dependent manner. Our findings suggest that promoting the degradation of HIF-1α could be a strategy to manage progression and that HIF-1α inhibitors are potent drugs for thyroid cancer treatment.
Keywords: HIF-1α; IDF-11774; thyroid cancer.