Notching up differences

A study in Cancer Research from the University of Queensland suggests that Notch 4 might be an outlier in the Notch family of proteins that are commonly thought of as oncogenes. By showing Notch 4 acts as a tumor suppressor in melanoma, the group's findings suggest activating the isoform could be a better strategy in cancer than inhibiting the whole family.

Most of the focus on the Notch family has been on its activity in promoting cancer, because deregulation of Notch is associated with oncogenic activity in many malignancies including breast cancer, melanoma and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and preclinical experiments show inappropriate Notch signaling promotes proliferation, restricts differentiation and prevents apoptosis in cancer cells. ...