An inhibitor of mTOR reduces neoplasia and normalizes p70/S6 kinase activity in Pten+/− mice

K Podsypanina, RT Lee, C Politis… - Proceedings of the …, 2001 - National Acad Sciences
K Podsypanina, RT Lee, C Politis, I Hennessy, A Crane, J Puc, M Neshat, H Wang, L Yang…
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2001National Acad Sciences
PTEN phosphatase acts as a tumor suppressor by negatively regulating the
phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway. It is unclear which downstream
components of this pathway are necessary for oncogenic transformation. In this report we
show that transformed cells of PTEN+/− mice have elevated levels of phosphorylated Akt
and activated p70/S6 kinase associated with an increase in proliferation. Pharmacological
inactivation of mTOR/RAFT/FRAP reduced neoplastic proliferation, tumor size, and p70/S6 …
PTEN phosphatase acts as a tumor suppressor by negatively regulating the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway. It is unclear which downstream components of this pathway are necessary for oncogenic transformation. In this report we show that transformed cells of PTEN+/− mice have elevated levels of phosphorylated Akt and activated p70/S6 kinase associated with an increase in proliferation. Pharmacological inactivation of mTOR/RAFT/FRAP reduced neoplastic proliferation, tumor size, and p70/S6 kinase activity, but did not affect the status of Akt. These data suggest that p70/S6K and possibly other targets of mTOR contribute significantly to tumor development and that inhibition of these proteins may be therapeutic for cancer patients with deranged PI3K signaling.
National Acad Sciences