Mutations in the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) gene are pathogenic in VHL disease, congenital polycythaemia and clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC). pVHL forms a ternary complex with elongin C and elongin B, critical for pVHL stability and function, which interacts with Cullin-2 and RING-box protein 1 to target hypoxia-inducible factor for polyubiquitination and proteasomal degradation.
The von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumour suppressorgene product is believed to be involved in the down-regulation of transcriptional elongation by preventing the association of elongin B and C with the catalytic subunit elongin A. Alterations in the human VHL gene lead to VHL disease which is associated with various rare neoplasias, including haemangioblastoma of the central nervous system, retinal angioma, clear cell renal carcinoma and pheochromocytoma.