Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P42345 (mTOR)
 26,049 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The serine/threonine protein kinase B (PKB, also known as Akt) constitutes an important node in diverse signaling cascades downstream of growth factor receptor tyrosine kinases. Akt plays an essential role in cell survival, growth, migration, proliferation, polarity, and metabolism (lipid and glucose); cell cycle progression; muscle and cardiomyocyte contractility; angiogenesis; and self-renewal of stem cells. Altered Akt activity has been associated with cancer and other disease conditions, such as diabetes mellitus, neurodegenerative diseases, and muscle hypotrophy. In the past decade, the upstream signals that lead to Akt activation, the downstream substrates that exert the effects of Akt, and the secondary binding proteins that regulate Akt activation have been well documented. Recent reports from our group and others have revealed how the stability of Akt protein is regulated through phosphorylation on its Thr-Pro motifs. This literature review details findings of those reports and others relevant to the regulation of Akt activation by its upstream kinases, with a focus on mammalian target of rapamycin complexes (mTORCs) and inactivation by PHLDA3 and the protein phosphatases PP2A and pleckstrin homology domain leucine-rich repeat protein phosphatase (PHLPP). Reports on ubiquitin-dependent Akt degradation, caspase-dependent cleavage, and the roles of molecular chaperone heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) in the regulation of Akt stability are summarized. The highlight will be on the role of "turn motif" phosphorylation and an isomerase, Pin1, in the regulation of Akt stability. We also discuss issues related to the intricate mTORC2-AktmTORC1 loop and the contradictory regulation of Akt phosphorylation and stabilization of Akt by mTORC2. Finally, we offer perspective on potential future directions for investigation, particularly on translating the knowledge we learned on the regulation of Akt stability into therapeutic intervention on human cancer with Akt alteration.
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PMID:Physiological regulation of Akt activity and stability. 2018 80

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNET) are rare cancers that generally have a poor prognosis. Accurate diagnosis and proper treatment of these tumors requires a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of PanNET. It has been shown that the mTOR inhibitor everolimus can improve the progression-free survival of PanNET patients, suggesting that inhibition of the PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway may suppress the progression of PanNET. PHLDA3 is a novel tumor suppressor protein that inhibits Akt activation by competition for binding to PIP3 . Our analysis of PanNET revealed frequent loss-of-heterozygosity and DNA methylation at the PHLDA3 locus, resulting in strong suppression of PHLDA3 transcription. Such alterations in the PHLDA3 gene were also frequently found in lung neuroendocrine tumors (NET), suggesting the possibility that various types of NET have in common the functional loss of the PHLDA3 gene.
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PMID:A vicious partnership between AKT and PHLDA3 to facilitate neuroendocrine tumors. 2829 76