Editorial for Special Issue: Neuroglobin from Brain Protection to Cancer Progression

Since its discovery in 2000 and characterization of its preferential expression in the brain, neuroglobin (NGB) presented a new opportunity to understand the mechanisms underlying neural pathologies, as well as to discover new therapeutic approaches. Indeed, its active role in brain as an oxidative stress sensor and cytoprotective factor against neurodegeneration, hypoxia, ischemia, toxicity, glutamate toxicity, and nutrient deprivation lead us to consider that NGB is part of endogenous neuroprotective pathways, thus elucidating a new scenario in the possibility of discovering new therapeutic approaches. However, NGB has recently been recognized as a new tumor-associated protein, highlighting the role of this globin in increasing tumor cell resilience against stress-induced apoptotic pathway and the antioxidant systems activated by cancer cells. In fact, these pathways and cellular processes were found unbalanced in NGB-deficient cancer cells. The dual nature of NGB, from protecting the vitality and function of the central nervous system to cancer progression, makes it imperative to better understand the molecular mechanisms in which this globin is involved. In this Special Issue of Cells entitled “Neuroglobin from Brain Protection to Cancer Progression,” we collect both reviews and articles aimed to identify the molecular mechanisms at the root of the biological functions of NGB that will bear fundamental and translational significance, especially in the development of therapeutics against neurological disorders.