Luisa María Botella,Virginia Albinana, Karina Villar Gómez de las Heras and Mercedes Mota-Perez
In our previous paper, propranolol is used in hemangioblastomas primary cultures from patients with von Hippel- Lindau disease. This is a rare inherited oncologic condition characterized by the growth of tumors affecting mainly the central nervous system, but also kidneys, pancreas, adrenal glands, retinas and endolymphatic sacs (inner ear). Up to date, the only treatment for these patients is surgery. The search for drugs able, at least, to stop the development of hemangioblastomas, has led our group to propose propranolol, a non-specific beta blocker, as a drug to test. According to the results of this work, propranolol would act by decreasing hypoxia signaling pathway, which is constitutively active in VHL patients, normalizing the hypoxia target genes involved in angiogenesis, survival and stemness in the hemangioblastoma cells. The results in vitro are promising and, in the absence of serious side effects, propranolol could be assayed as a therapy in the clinical practice for VHL patients.