Notch signaling in glioblastoma: a developmental drug target?

Notch signaling in glioblastoma: a developmental drug target?

Malignant gliomas are among the most devastating tumors for which conventional therapies have not significantly improved patient outcome. Despite advances in imaging, surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, survival is still less than 2 years from diagnosis and more targeted therapies are urgently needed. Notch signaling is central to the normal and neoplastic development of the central nervous...

Midkine Signaling in Glioblastoma: A Novel Developmental Drug Target?

Dopamine signaling: target in glioblastoma

Despite numerous promising discoveries in contemporary cancer research, and the emerging innovative cancer treatment strategies, the global burden of malignant diseases is expected to rise, in part due to the rapidly aging human populations. Consequently, there is an urgent need to design and validate new treatments in oncology, especially for cancer types with presently dismal prognosis due to...

Notch signaling as a therapeutic target.

Signals transduced by Notch receptors influence differentiation and proliferation in a wide variety of cell types. Activation of a Notch signal by one of several ligands triggers a series of proteolytic cleavages that release the intracellular region of Notch from the membrane, allowing it ultimately to translocate to the nucleus and activate the transcription of downstream target genes. Recent...

Notch signaling regulates metabolic heterogeneity in glioblastoma stem cells

Glioblastoma (GBM) stem cells (GSCs) reside in both hypoxic and vascular microenvironments within tumors. The molecular mechanisms that allow GSCs to occupy such contrasting niches are not understood. We used patient-derived GBM cultures to identify GSC subtypes with differential activation of Notch signaling, which co-exist in tumors but occupy distinct niches and match their metabolism accord...