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Small Molecules That Inhibit Notch Signaling

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Notch Signaling

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1187))

Abstract

The proteolytic processing of Notch receptors plays a central role in the transduction of Notch signaling, which is involved in a variety of important processes in the body. Abnormal Notch processing has been implicated in a variety of cancers. γ-Secretase is responsible for the third and last cleavage step of Notch receptors. Since γ-secretase plays an important role in Alzheimer’s disease, great effort has been spent to develop γ-secretase inhibitors (GSIs). The majority of these inhibitors block γ-secretase nonselectively, which means that these compounds can be used to block Notch cleavage and thereby regulate Notch signaling. In this review we give an overview of the most-used GSIs in the Notch field, together with examples of their use. It is a huge advantage that these drug-like compounds are already optimized for γ-secretase, and some are already being used in clinical trials. However, their nonspecificity has disadvantages as well, since four Notch receptors exist with different sites of expression and different roles in cell signaling and at least four different γ-secretase proteases are involved in their cleavage. It would be worth the effort to screen many GSIs for their selectivity for the different Notch receptors and γ-secretases, in order to obtain interesting tools for further research and—in the end—to develop safer drugs.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by VIB, a Methusalem grant from KU Leuven and the Flemish government, Janssen Pharmaceutica, and the Arthur Bax and Anna Van Luffelen foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. VIB Center for the Biology of Disease, O&N 4, Herestraat 49, 602, Leuven, 3000, Belgium

    Gerdien E. De Kloe

  2. VIB Center for the Biology of Disease and Center for Human Genetics and Institute of Neuroscience & Disease (LIND), KU Leuven and universitaire ziekenhuizen, Leuven, 3000, Belgium

    Bart De Strooper

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  1. Gerdien E. De Kloe
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  2. Bart De Strooper
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Correspondence to Bart De Strooper .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept.of Molecular and Human Genetics, Program in Developmental Biology, Dept. of Neuroscience, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA

    Hugo J. Bellen

  2. Dept. of Molecular and Human Genetics, Program in Developmental Biology, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA

    Shinya Yamamoto

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De Kloe, G.E., De Strooper, B. (2014). Small Molecules That Inhibit Notch Signaling. In: Bellen, H., Yamamoto, S. (eds) Notch Signaling. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1187. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1139-4_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1139-4_23

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-1138-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-1139-4

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