The HIF-1α antisense long non-coding RNA drives a positive feedback loop of HIF-1α mediated transactivation and glycolysis

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1) is a master regulator of glucose metabolism in cancer cells. Here, we demonstrate that a HIF-1α anti-sense lncRNA, HIFAL, is essential for maintaining and enhancing HIF-1α-mediated transactivation and glycolysis. Mechanistically, HIFAL recruits PHD3 to PKM2 to induce its prolyl hydroxylation and introduces the PKM2/PHD3 complex into the nucleus via binding with hnRNPF to enhance HIF-1α transactivation. Reciprocally, HIF-1α induces HIFAL transcription, which forms a positive feed-forward loop to maintain the transactivation activity of HIF-1α. Clinically, high HIFAL expression is associated with aggressive breast cancer phenotype and poor patient outcome. Furthermore, HIFAL overexpression promotes tumor growth in vivo, while targeting both HIFAL and HIF-1α significantly rescues their effect on cancer growth. Overall, our results indicate a critical regulatory role of HIFAL in HIF-1α-driven transactivation and glycolysis, identifying HIFAL as a therapeutic target for cancer treatment. Breast cancer cell lines 76N and MBA-MD-231 under normoxia (20%) or hypoxia (0.6%) conditions and 4 pairs of breast cancer and adjacent normal tissues.