In separate prior studies, MRV infection was found to induce an increase in HIF-la proteasome-mediated degradation in lung-, renal-, and colon-derived cancer cells (Cho et al, 2010), but to induce a decrease in HIF-1α degradation in brain-derived tumor cells [32], suggesting MRV infection has variable effects on the cellular hypoxic response depending on tumor type. The gene discussed is HIF1A; the disease is cancer.