Slit/Robo Pathway - Neurogenesis to Cancer Progression: A Potential Therapeutic Target

Abstract

Slit-Robo could be a cell signaling pathway with numerous functions such as axon steering and ontogenesis. Slit is a secreted macromolecule and most generally referred to as a repulsive axon steering cue, and Robo as its trans-membrane macromolecular receptor. This ligand-receptor combination has been concerned in different kind of neuronal and non-neuronal processes starting from cell migration to ontogenesis, tumorigenesis and organogenesis like kidneys, lungs and breasts, etc. Roundabout receptors (Robo) and their Slit ligands were detected in axon steering. Slit was primarily associate degree extracellular matrix super molecule and expressed by plane interstitial tissue in fruit fly. Slits acted as chemorepellents for axons crossing the plane in vertebrates and invertebrates. The origin of Robo proteins were from fruit fly in an exceedingly mutant screening for genes concerned with the regulation of plane crossing. This ligandreceptor try has been involved exceedingly in somatic cell and non-neuronal processes starting from cell migration to maturation, tumorigenesis and organogenesis of tissues like kidneys, lungs and breasts, etc. This pathway act as a substance receptor pathway where Slit proteins bind with Robo receptors and convert signals for axon steering through plane commissures. Recent studies have confronted the role of this signal in numerous fields outside ontogeny like maturation and cancer progression. Here the fundamental framework of Slit/Robo structure and its general pathway with special stress on its operation in stomach cancer are summarized.