Non-coding RNAs targeting notch signaling pathway in cancer: From proliferation to cancer therapy resistance

Abstract

Cancer is a challenging to treat disease with a high mortality rate worldwide, nevertheless advances in science has led to a decrease in the number of death cases caused by cancer. Aberrant expression of genes occurs during tumorigenesis therefore targeting the signaling pathways that regulate these genes' expression is of importance in cancer therapy. Notch is one of the signaling pathways having interactions with other vital cell signaling molecules responsible for cellular functions such as proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, metastasis, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), angiogenesis, and immune evasion. Furthermore, the Notch pathway is involved in response to chemo- and radiotherapy. Thus, targeting the Notch signaling pathway in cancer therapy can be beneficial for overcoming the therapeutic gaps. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are a class of RNAs that include short ncRNAs (such as micro RNAs) and long ncRNAs (lncRNAs). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are ~22 nucleotides in length while lncRNAs have more than 200 nucleotides. Both miRNAs and lncRNAs control vital cellular mechanisms in cells and affect various signaling pathways and Notch is among them. The current review aims to discuss the critical role of ncRNAs in the regulation of the Notch signaling pathway by focusing on different cancer hallmarks including proliferation, apoptosis, autophagy, EMT, invasion, metastasis, and resistance to therapies.