Cited by 68Cancer Immunotherapy and BiomarkersImmunotherapy and Immune ResponsesCancer, Hypoxia, and Metabolism

HIF regulates multiple translated endogenous retroviruses: Implications for cancer immunotherapy

Open access
Jiang, Qinqin, Braun, David A., Clauser, Karl R., Ramesh, Vijyendra, Shirole, Nitin H., Duke-Cohan, Joseph E., Nabilsi, Nancy, Kramer, Nicholas J. +38 more·2025·Cell

Abstract

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), despite having a low mutational burden, is considered immunogenic because it occasionally undergoes spontaneous regressions and often responds to immunotherapies. The signature lesion in ccRCC is inactivation of the VHL tumor suppressor gene and consequent upregulation of the HIF transcription factor. An earlier case report described a ccRCC patient who was cured by an allogeneic stem cell transplant and later found to have donor-derived T cells that recognized a ccRCC-specific peptide encoded by a HIF-responsive endogenous retrovirus (ERV), ERVE-4. We report that ERVE-4 is one of many ERVs that are induced by HIF, translated into HLA-bound peptides in ccRCCs, and capable of generating antigen-specific T cell responses. Moreover, ERV expression can be induced in non-ccRCC tumors with clinical-grade HIF stabilizers. These findings have implications for leveraging ERVs for cancer immunotherapy.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.cell.2025.01.046

Cites

132 of 132 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • DAC treatment could induce expression of retrotransposons normally silenced by DNA methylation, which could augment tumor immunogenicity.

    “DAC treatment could induce expression of retrotransposons normally silenced by DNA methylation, which could also augment tumor immunogenicity10–14,99.”

    From Multi-omic analysis of hepatocellular carcinoma reveals aberrant cis-regulatory changes and dysregulated retrotransposons with prognostic potential (2025) · cites this paper as [99]

    The Results (Pharmacological Induction of HIF-responsive ERVs; page unavailable) show that the DNMT1 inhibitor GSK3685032 induced ERV4700 RNA in renal cancer cells. The Introduction says DNA methylation usually represses ERV transcription, and the Discussion links ERV expression to immune activation. The paper does not establish that DAC specifically produces these effects; it tested a different inhibitor. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

1 retracted

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [94]Yu Z, Lv Y, Su C, Lu W, Zhang R, Li J, Guo B, Yan H, Liu D, Yang Z, (2023). Integrative Single-Cell Analysis Reveals Transcriptional and Epigenetic Regulatory Features of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma. Cancer Research 83, 700– 719. 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-22-2224. 36607615 PMC9978887 · DOI

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Jiang, Q., Braun, D. A., Clauser, K. R., Ramesh, V., Shirole, N. H., Duke-Cohan, J. E., Nabilsi, N., Kramer, N. J., Forman, C., Lippincott, I. E., Klaeger, S., Phulphagar, K. M., Chea, V., Kim, N., Vanasse, A. P., Saad, E., Parsons, T., Carr-Reynolds, M., Carulli, I., Pinjusic, K., Jiang, Y., Li, R., Syamala, S., Rachimi, S., Verzani, E. K., Stevens, J. D., Lane, W. J., Camp, S. Y., Meli, K., Pappalardi, M. B., Herbert, Z. T., Qiu, X., Cejas, P., Long, H. W., Shukla, S. A., Van Allen, E. M., Choueiri, T. K., Churchman, L. S., Abelin, J. G., Gurer, C., MacBeath, G., Childs, R. W., Carr, S. A., Keskin, D. B., Wu, C. J., & Kaelin, W. G.
Affiliations
  • Harvard University (US)
  • Broad Institute (US)
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (US)
  • TScan Therapeutics (United States) (US)
  • Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
  • GlaxoSmithKline (United States) (US)
  • The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (US)
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
  • Boston University (US)
Venue
Cell
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2025-04
Volume
188
Issue
7
Pages
1807-1827.e34
ISSN
0092-8674 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4408028077
Cited by
68
References
132
Citations by year
2026: 45 · 2025: 23
FWCI
28.16
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cell (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
  • Digital Commons-TMC (Texas Medical Center) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (5R35CA210068)
  • US Department of Defense (W81XWH-22-1-0096)
  • National Institutes of Health (R01GM123002)
  • National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute (U01CA271402, U24CA270823, 5R01CA155010)
  • Breast Cancer Research Foundation
  • Yale Cancer Center (P30CA01635)
  • Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (225660)
  • Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation (U54CA272688, R01HL157174, R01CA285308, R01CA279391)
  • GlaxoSmithKline (GSK3685032)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immunotherapy and Immune Responses
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer, Hypoxia, and Metabolism
Keywords
hypoxia-inducible factor, endogenous retroviruses, clear cell renal cell carcinoma, VHL inactivation, HIF stabilizers, HLA-bound peptides, tumor antigen presentation, donor T cells, allogeneic stem cell transplantation, cancer immunotherapy, tumor immunogenicity
MeSH terms
Carcinoma, Renal Cell, Humans, Immunotherapy, Kidney Neoplasms, T-Lymphocytes, Endogenous Retroviruses, Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Proteins, Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors, Von Hippel-Lindau Tumor Suppressor Protein, Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review