Notch Signaling: A Novel Therapeutic Target for Cancer

Copyright: © 2013 Yu Y. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Notch signaling pathway is highly conserved in evolution in the signal transduction pathway, in which it regulates stem-cell maintenance, cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis in almost all the tissues and organs. Notch signaling plays a critical role in cell fate decision in many developmental systems. Notch-mediated signaling can expand and cure molecular differences between adjacent cells, and ultimately determine the fate of cells. Notch receptors are type I transmembrane heterodimeric receptors that widely exist in all known animal cells. There are four Notch receptors (Notch1-4), three Delta-like ligands (Dll1, Dll3, and Dll4), and two ligands of the Jagged family (Jag1 and Jag2) in mammals [1].