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Modulation of Notch Signaling by Small-Molecular Compounds and Its Potential in Anticancer Studies

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The dysregulation of Notch signaling plays an important role in cancer development. Numerous attempts are made to modulate Notch signaling for positive therapeutic effects. For this purpose, a broad group of small-molecular compounds are used. These small compounds have several featu...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Czerwonka, Arkadiusz, Kałafut, Joanna, Nees, Matthias
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10526229/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37760535
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers15184563
Descripción
Sumario:SIMPLE SUMMARY: The dysregulation of Notch signaling plays an important role in cancer development. Numerous attempts are made to modulate Notch signaling for positive therapeutic effects. For this purpose, a broad group of small-molecular compounds are used. These small compounds have several features desirable in laboratory and clinical practice, such as low price, easy availability, and the possibility of standardizing the dose, and will be presented in this article. ABSTRACT: Notch signaling is responsible for conveying messages between cells through direct contact, playing a pivotal role in tissue development and homeostasis. The modulation of Notch-related processes, such as cell growth, differentiation, viability, and cell fate, offer opportunities to better understand and prevent disease progression, including cancer. Currently, research efforts are mainly focused on attempts to inhibit Notch signaling in tumors with strong oncogenic, gain-of-function (GoF) or hyperactivation of Notch signaling. The goal is to reduce the growth and proliferation of cancer cells, interfere with neo-angiogenesis, increase chemosensitivity, potentially target cancer stem cells, tumor dormancy, and invasion, and induce apoptosis. Attempts to pharmacologically enhance or restore disturbed Notch signaling for anticancer therapies are less frequent. However, in some cancer types, such as squamous cell carcinomas, preferentially, loss-of-function (LoF) mutations have been confirmed, and restoring but not blocking Notch functions may be beneficial for therapy. The modulation of Notch signaling can be performed at several key levels related to NOTCH receptor expression, translation, posttranslational (proteolytic) processing, glycosylation, transport, and activation. This further includes blocking the interaction with Notch-related nuclear DNA transcription. Examples of small-molecular chemical compounds, that modulate individual elements of Notch signaling at the mentioned levels, have been described in the recent literature.