The Notch pathway: a novel target for myocardial remodelling therapy?

Pathological ventricle remodelling, which follows a cardiac insult, causes heart failure. Despite the existence of multiple pharmaceutical approaches, heart failure is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and there is an urgent need to explore new therapeutic avenues. The Notch pathway is an evolutionary conserved fundamental pathway that regulates cell fate during development as well as throughout postnatal life in self-renewing tissues. In the myocardium, Notch signalling is involved in the modulation of cardiomyocytes survival, cardiac stem cells differentiation, and angiogenesis which are factors known to determine the extent of pathological cardiac remodelling. Modulation of the Notch pathway could become a tool to limit ventricle remodelling and the associated inexorable deterioration of cardiac performance.