Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P31749 (AKT)
 22,954 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Curcumin, a yellow pigment and the active component of turmeric, has been shown to protect against carcinogenesis and prevent tumor development in several types of cancer. However, its low bioavailability and potency prevent it from being effective in most chemotherapeutic applications. One potential means of circumventing this problem has been the creation of synthetic curcumin analogues. We tested the efficacy of two such analogues, known as FLLL11 and FLLL12, in human pancreatic cancer cell lines. We compared the impact of curcumin with FLLL11 and FLLL12 on cell viability in five different pancreatic cancer cell lines. Although all three compounds were capable of lowering viability in all cell lines tested, FLLL11 and FLLL12 (IC(50) values between 0.28-3.2 and 0.91-3.43 micromol/l, respectively) were substantially more potent than curcumin (IC(50) values between 8.67 and 20.35 micromol/l). In addition, FLLL11 and FLLL12 inhibited phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 and AKT, two cell signaling pathways frequently found persistently active in many forms of cancer. Furthermore, FLLL11 and FLLL12 were found to be more effective than curcumin in inducing apoptosis as evidenced by increased cleavage of PARP and caspase-3 in pancreatic cancer cell lines. These results indicate that the curcumin analogues, FLLL11 and FLLL12, are more effective than curcumin in inhibiting cell viability and inducing apoptosis, and may have translational potential as chemopreventive or therapeutic agents for pancreatic cancer.
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PMID:Curcumin analogues exhibit enhanced growth suppressive activity in human pancreatic cancer cells. 1938 91

Radiation therapy, a mainstay for anti-tumor therapeutic regimens for a variety of tumor types, triggers tumor cell apoptotic pathways by either directly eliciting DNA damage or indirectly inducing the formation of oxygen radicals. In an effort to augment radiation therapy, we generated a double E1B 19 kDa- and E1B 55 kDa-deleted oncolytic adenovirus (Ad-DeltaE1B19/55). In combination with radiotherapy, greater cytotoxicity was observed for Ad-DeltaE1B19/55 than for the single E1B 55 kDa-deleted oncolytic Ad (Ad-DeltaE1B55). Consistent with this observation, higher levels of p53, phospho-p53, phospho-Chk1, phospho-Chk2, PI3K (phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase), phospho-AKT, cytochrome c, and cleavage of PARP (poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase) and caspase-3 were observed in cells treated with Ad-DeltaE1B19/55 compared with those treated with Ad-DeltaE1B55, indicating that the E1B 19 kDa present in Ad-DeltaE1B55 may partially block radiation-induced apoptosis. A significant therapeutic benefit was also observed in vivo when oncolytic Ads and radiation were combined. Tumors treated with Ad-DeltaE1B19/55 and radiation showed large areas of necrosis and apoptosis with the corresponding induction of p53. Finally, consistent with in vitro observations, the combination of Ad-DeltaE1B19/55 and radiation was more efficacious than the combination of Ad-DeltaE1B55 and radiation. Taken together, these results present a strong therapeutic rationale for combining radiation therapy with E1B 19 kDa-deleted oncolytic Ad.
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PMID:Double E1B 19 kDa- and E1B 55 kDa-deleted oncolytic adenovirus in combination with radiotherapy elicits an enhanced anti-tumor effect. 1949 43

Lovastatin is a 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitor. Its inhibitory action on HMG-CoA reductase leads to depletion of isoprenoids, which inhibits post-translational modification of RAS. In this study, we investigated the effect of combining lovastatin with gefitinib on gefitinib-resistant human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines with K-Ras mutations. Antitumor effects were measured by growth inhibition and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Effects on apoptosis were determined by flow cytometry, DNA fragmentation, and immunoblots. Protein levels of RAS, AKT/pAKT, and RAF/ERK1/2 in cancer cells were analyzed by immunoblot. Compared with gefitinib alone, a combination of gefitinib with lovastatin showed significantly enhanced cell growth inhibition and cytotoxicity in gefitinib-resistant A549 and NCI-H460 human NSCLC cells. In addition, lovastatin combination treatment significantly increased gefitinib-related apoptosis, as determined by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometric analysis. These effects correlated with up-regulation of cleaved caspase-3, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), and Bax and down-regulation of Bcl-2. The combination of lovastatin and gefitinib effectively down-regulated RAS protein and suppressed the phosphorylation of RAF, ERK1/2, AKT, and EGFR in both cell lines. Taken together, these results suggest lovastatin can overcome gefitinib resistance, in NSCLC cells with K-Ras mutations, by down regulation of RAS protein, which leads to inhibition of both RAF/ERK and AKT pathways.
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PMID:Lovastatin overcomes gefitinib resistance in human non-small cell lung cancer cells with K-Ras mutations. 1976 Jan 59

Insulin receptor substrate-4 (IRS-4) transmits signals from the insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-IR) and the insulin receptor (IR) to the PI3K/AKT and the ERK1/2 pathways. IRS-4 expression increases dramatically after partial hepatectomy and plays an important role in HepG2 hepatoblastoma cell line proliferation/differentiation. In human hepatocarcinoma, IRS-4 overexpression has been associated with tumor development. Herein, we describe the mechanism whereby IRS-4 depletion induced by RNA interference (siRNA) sensitizes HepG2 cells to treatment with actinomycin D (Act D) and combined treatment with Act D plus tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). Similar results have been obtained in HuH 7 and Chang cell lines. Act D therapy drove the cells to a mitochondrial-dependent apoptotic program involving cytochrome c release, caspase 3 activation, PARP fragmentation and DNA laddering. TNF-alpha amplifies the effect of Act D on HepG2 cell apoptosis increasing c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activity, IkappaB-alpha proteolysis and glutathione depletion. IRS-4 depleted cells that were treated with Act D showed an increase in cytochrome c release and procaspase 3 and PARP proteolysis with respect to control cells. The mechanism involved in IRS-4 action is independent of Akt, IkappaB kinase and JNK. IRS-4 down regulation, however, decreased gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase content and cell glutathione level in the presence of Act D plus TNF-alpha. These results suggest that IRS-4 protects HepG2 cells from oxidative stress induced by drug treatment.
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PMID:RNAi-mediated silencing of insulin receptor substrate-4 enhances actinomycin D- and tumor necrosis factor-alpha-induced cell death in hepatocarcinoma cancer cell lines. 1979 87

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease characterised by a dysregulation of multiple pathways related to cell differentiation, cell cycle control, apoptosis, angiogenesis and development of metastasis. Acting against these pathways provides therapeutic targets for new targeted biologic therapies, which, in the future, might constitute a key for fighting cancer. The development of molecular technology in recent years has allowed a further comprehension of these mutations and dysregulated pathways leading to oncogenesis. New targeted biologic therapies will block essential functions of cancer cells and tumour stroma. A growing number of therapy options, alone or in combination with background treatments (chemotherapy, hormone therapy, radiotherapy), will allow oncologists a better adaptation of treatment to patients and disease characteristics. Examples of approved targeted agents in breast cancer include agents targeting the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), such as trastuzumab, lapatinib and the anti-VEGF bevacizumab. In addition, there are other therapy classes under evaluation, including novel antiEGFR or antiHER2 therapies; agents fighting other tyrosine kinases, including the Src and the insulinlike growth factor receptor; agents interfering critically relevant pathways, such as PI3K/AKT/mTOR inhibitors; and agents promoting apoptosis, such as PARP inhibitors (for particular breast cancer subtypes, such as basal-like, or breast cancer with BRCA mutations) and others. The better selectivity against malignant cells of these therapies, when compared to conventional chemotherapy, gives, a priori, at least two advantages to biologic treatments: fewer side effects and a more individualised treatment of cancer depending on the tumour's molecular characteristics. The ability to identify patients' subgroups and response predicting factors will be crucial in obtaining the greatest benefit with minimal toxicity levels. Unsolved questions remain, such as appropriate patient selection based on the expression of the therapeutic target in the tumour, the study of the efficacy of the drug in not so extensively pretreated populations and with a greater chance of response, the use of new pharmacodynamic models to help to define new response predicting factors for a specific new biologic therapy, the combined and rational use of different biologic therapies having different molecular targets and fighting the same target through a complementary mechanism of action that might improve clinical efficacy.
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PMID:Targeted therapy of metastatic breast cancer. 1982 6

Alkannin is the major bioactive compound of Arnebia euchroma roots, which is used in many therapeutic remedies in Chinese traditional medicine. SYUNZ-16 is a new derivative of alkannin. In this study, anticancer effects of SYUNZ-16 on human lung adenocarcinoma cell line GLC-82 and human hepatocarcinoma cell line Hep3B were tested in vitro. The results showed SYUNZ-16 could obviously inhibit the proliferation of these cancer cell lines via induction of apoptosis, with the evidence of increasing AnnexinV-positive cells and cleaved caspase-3 and PARP fragments. More importantly, we found that SYUNZ-16 could inhibit AKT activity in cell-free system. Treatment of cancer cells with SYUNZ-16 decreased the phosphorylation of AKT. Additionally, SYUNZ-16 partially attenuated the phosphorylation levels of FKHR and FKHRL1 in a dose-dependent and time-dependent fashion, and led to an increase in the nuclear accumulation of exogenous FKHR, and upregulated the mRNA expression of Bim and TRADD in cancer cells. Further study showed that constitutively activated AKT1 transfection could reduce apoptosis induction mediated by SYUNZ-16. The in vivo experiments showed that SYUNZ-16 had inhibitory effects on S-180 sarcoma implanted to mice. And in GLC-82 xenograft models, SYUNZ-16 at 20 mg/kg/qod remarkably inhibited the tumor growth with the T/C value of 45.3%. Taken together, SYUNZ-16 might be a potent inhibitor of AKT signaling pathway in tumor cells. These data provide evidence for the development of SYUNZ-16 as a potential antitumor drug candidate for further research and development.
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PMID:SYUNZ-16, a newly synthesized alkannin derivative, induces tumor cells apoptosis and suppresses tumor growth through inhibition of PKB/AKT kinase activity and blockade of AKT/FOXO signal pathway. 1990 42

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a promising candidate for cancer therapeutics due to its ability to induce apoptosis selectively in cancer cells. However, sensitivity of cancer cells for induction of apoptosis by TRAIL varies considerably. Therefore, it is important to develop agents that overcome this resistance. We show, for the first time, that eupatolide, the sesquiterpene lactone isolated from the medicinal plant Inula britannica, sensitizes human breast cancer cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Treatment with TRAIL in combination with subtoxic concentrations of eupatolide enhanced the TRAIL-induced cytotoxicity in MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-453 breast cancer cells, whereas each reagent alone slightly induced cell death. The combination induced sub-G1 phase DNA content and annexin V-staining in MCF-7 cells, which are major features of apoptosis. Apoptotic characteristics induced by the combined treatment were significantly inhibited by a pan-caspase inhibitor. The sensitization to TRAIL-induced apoptosis was accompanied by the activation of caspase-8 and was concomitant with Bid and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage. Treatment of eupatolide alone significantly down-regulated the expression of cellular FLICE inhibitory protein (c-FLIP) in MCF-7 cells. Furthermore, enforced expression of c-FLIP significantly attenuated the apoptosis induced by this combination in MCF-7 cells, suggesting a key role for c-FLIP down-regulation in these events. We also observed that euaptolide inhibited AKT phosphorylation in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Moreover, inhibition of Akt by LY294002, a specific PI3K inhibitor, down-regulated c-FLIP expression in MCF-7 cells. Taken together, these results indicate that eupatolide could augment TRAIL-induced apoptosis in human breast cancer cells by down-regulating c-FLIP expression through the inhibition of AKT phosphorylation and be a valuable compound to overcome TRAIL resistance in breast cancer cells.
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PMID:The sesquiterpene lactone eupatolide sensitizes breast cancer cells to TRAIL through down-regulation of c-FLIP expression. 1995 87

In previous works, we found that PTH promotes the apoptosis of human Caco-2 intestinal cells, through the mitochondrial pathway. This study was conducted to investigate the modulation of different players implicated in the AKT survival pathway in PTH-induced intestinal cell apoptosis. We demonstrate, for the first time, that PTH modulates AKT phosphorylation in response to apoptosis via the serine/threonine phosphatase PP2A. PTH treatment induces an association of AKT with the catalytic subunit of PP2A and increases its phosphatase activity. PTH also promotes the translocation of PP2Ac from the cytosol to the mitochondria. Furthermore, our results suggest that PP2A plays a role in hormone-dependent Caco-2 cells viability and in the cleavage of caspase-3 and its substrate PARP. The cAMP pathway also contributes to PTH-mediated AKT dephosphorylation while PKC and p38 MAPK do not participate in this event. Finally, we show that PTH induces the dissociation between 14-3-3 and AKT, but the significance of this response remains unknown. In correlation with PTH-induced Bad dephosphorylation, the hormone also decreases the basal association of 14-3-3 and Bad. Overall, our data suggest that in Caco-2 cells, PP2A and the cAMP pathway act in concert to inactivate the AKT survival pathway in PTH-induced intestinal cell apoptosis.
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PMID:PTH inactivates the AKT survival pathway in the colonic cell line Caco-2. 2000 8

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive, rapidly progressive malignancy without effective therapy. We evaluate sorafenib efficacy and impact on the cellular pro-survival machinery in vitro, efficacy of sorafenib as monotherapy and in combination with the naturally occurring death receptor agonist, TRAIL using human MPM cell lines, MSTO-211H, M30, REN, H28, H2052 and H2452. In vitro studies of the six MPM lines demonstrated single agent sensitivity to the multikinase inhibitor sorafenib and resistance to TRAIL. H28 and H2452 demonstrated augmented apoptosis with the addition of TRAIL to sorafenib in vitro. Treated cell lines demonstrated sorafenib-induced rapid dephosphorylation of AKT followed shortly by near complete dephosphorylation of the constitutively phosphorylated ERK1/2. Sorafenib therapy also decreased phosphorylation of B-Raf and mTOR in several cell lines. Within 3 h of sorafenib treatment, a number of known pro-survival molecules were dephosphorylated and/or downregulated in expression including MCL-1(L), c-FLIP(L), survivin and cIAP(1). These changes and eventual cell death did not elicit significant caspase-3 activation or PARP cleavage and pretreatment with the pan-caspase inhibitor, Z-VAD-FMK, did not block sorafenib efficacy but did block the effect of TRAIL monotherapy. Pre-treatment with Z-VAD-FMK did not block the synergistic effect of TRAIL and sorafenib in H28. In summary, single agent treatment with sorafenib results in widespread inhibition of the pro-survival machinery in vitro leading to cell death via a primarily caspase-independent mechanism. Combining sorafenib therapy with TRAIL, may be useful in order to provide a more efficient death signal and this synergistic effect appears to be caspase-independent. Pilot in vivo data demonstrates promising evidence of therapeutic efficacy in human tumor bearing xenograft nu/nu mice. We document single agent activity of sorafenib against MPM, unravel novel effects of sorafenib on anti-apoptotic signaling mediators, and suggest the combination of sorafenib plus TRAIL as possible therapy for clinical testing in MPM.
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PMID:Sorafenib inhibits ERK1/2 and MCL-1(L) phosphorylation levels resulting in caspase-independent cell death in malignant pleural mesothelioma. 2003 16

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease with different molecular drivers regulating its growth, survival and response to therapy. Breast cancer is divided in three major subtypes based on the pattern of expression of hormone receptors and HER2: luminal tumors (or HR positive), HER2 amplified tumors, and the remaining subtypes being collectively referred to as triple-negative breast cancer. While tumors within these subtypes have similar gene-expression patterns, clinical outcomes, and response to therapy, this division is far from perfect and subgroups within these groups are beginning to be identified. In terms of therapy, an increasingly rational drug development effort has resulted in agents against new molecular targets that are active against only those tumors with the targeted molecular alteration or phenotype. These agents include receptor and non-receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (HER1, HER2, HER3, insulin-like growth factor receptor, c-met, fibroblast growth factor receptor and HSP 90 inhibitors), intracellular signaling pathways (PI3K, AKT, mTOR), angiogenesis inhibitors and agents that interfere with DNA repair (PARP inhibitors). Thus, the overall management of breast cancer will increasingly require an understanding of breast cancer heterogeneicity, the biological nature of any given tumor as well the existence of increased personalized treatment options.
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PMID:Management of breast cancer with targeted agents: importance of heterogeneity. [corrected]. 2012 90


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