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)

RAS proteins are among the first proteins to demonstrate a crucial implication in the cell cycle regulation. The RAS signalling pathway plays a key role in the regulation of cell cycle through the activation of numerous downstream pathways including the RAF/MEK/ERK, PI3K/AKT/mTOR, RAL and PKC pathways. These pathways are involved in gene transcription, regulation of cell survival and angiogenesis. As the RAS signalling pathway was shown to be altered in several cancers, molecularly targeted agents that trigger various components of this pathway have been evaluated in clinical practice. This paper first reviews the regulation processes of the RAS protein in cancer, as well as RAS downstream main signalling pathways. Therapeutic approaches to target RAS or some of its effectors are then detailed. Finally, the ability of RAS mutations to predict response to EGFR-targeting agents is discussed in the context of colorectal and lung cancers.
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PMID:[Targeting the RAS signalling pathway in cancer]. 2171 53

More than a hundred proteins comprise the RAS superfamily of small GTPases. This family can be divided into RAS, RHO, RAB, RAN, ARF, and RAD subfamilies, with each shown to play distinct roles in human cells in both health and disease. The RAS subfamily has a well-established role in human cancer with the three genes, HRAS, KRAS, and NRAS being the commonly mutated in tumors. These RAS mutations, most often functionally activating, are especially common in pancreatic, lung, and colorectal cancers. Efforts to inhibit RAS and related GTPases have produced inhibitors targeting the downstream effectors of RAS signaling, including inhibitors of the RAF-mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-related kinase (ERK)-ERK kinase pathway and the phosphoinositide-3-kinase-AKT-mTOR kinase pathway. A third effector arm of RAS signaling, mediated by RAL (RAS like) has emerged in recent years as a critical driver of RAS oncogenic signaling and has not been targeted until recently. RAL belongs to the RAS branch of the RAS superfamily and shares a high structural similarity with RAS. In human cells, there are two genes, RALA and RALB, both of which have been shown to play roles in the proliferation, survival, and metastasis of a variety of human cancers, including lung, colon, pancreatic, prostate, skin, and bladder cancers. In this review, we summarize the latest knowledge of RAL in the context of human cancer and the recent advancements in the development of cancer therapeutics targeting RAL small GTPases.
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PMID:RAL GTPases: Biology and Potential as Therapeutic Targets in Cancer. 2919 55