Notch signaling, hypoxia, and cancer

Mingzhou Guo; Yang Niu; Min Xie; Xiansheng Liu; Xiaochen Li

doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1078768

Notch signaling, hypoxia, and cancer

Front Oncol. 2023 Jan 31:13:1078768. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1078768. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Mingzhou Guo^{1

2}, Yang Niu^{1

2}, Min Xie^{1

2}, Xiansheng Liu^{1

2}, Xiaochen Li^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
² Key Laboratory of Pulmonary Diseases of National Health Commission, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Sciences and Technology, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

Notch signaling is involved in cell fate determination and deregulated in human solid tumors. Hypoxia is an important feature in many solid tumors, which activates hypoxia-induced factors (HIFs) and their downstream targets to promote tumorigenesis and cancer development. Recently, HIFs have been shown to trigger the Notch signaling pathway in a variety of organisms and tissues. In this review, we focus on the pro- and anti-tumorigenic functions of Notch signaling and discuss the crosstalk between Notch signaling and cellular hypoxic response in cancer pathogenesis, including epithelia-mesenchymal transition, angiogenesis, and the maintenance of cancer stem cells. The pharmacological strategies targeting Notch signaling and hypoxia in cancer are also discussed in this review.

Keywords: Notch signaling; cancer; hypoxia; hypoxia-induced factors pathway; therapeutics.

Publication types

Review