Cell signaling by receptor-tyrosine kinases

Akt Phosphorylation of BAD Couples Survival Signals to the Cell-Intrinsic Death Machinery

One signal that is overactivated in a wide range of tumour types is the production of a phospholipid, phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5) trisphosphate, by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) This lipid and the protein kinase that is activated by it — AKT — trigger a cascade of responses, from cell growth and proliferation to survival and motility, that drive tumour progression Small-molecule therapeutics that block PI3K signalling might deal a severe blow to cancer cells by blocking many aspects of the tumour-cell phenotype

The phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase AKT pathway in human cancer.

In certain aspects, the invention relates to methods for identifying compounds which modulate Akt activity mediated by the rictor-mTOR complex and methods for treating or preventing a disorder that is associated with aberrant Akt activity.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/307/5712/1098.full.pdf

Phosphorylation and regulation of Akt/PKB by the rictor-mTOR complex

The epidemic of type 2 diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In both disorders, tissues such as muscle, fat and liver become less responsive or resistant to insulin. This state is also linked to other common health problems, such as obesity, polycystic ovarian disease, hyperlipidaemia, hypertension and atherosclerosis. The pathophysiology of insulin resistance involves a complex network of signalling pathways, activated by the insulin receptor, which regulates intermediary metabolism and its organization in cells. But recent studies have shown that numerous other hormones and signalling events attenuate insulin action, and are important in type 2 diabetes.

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Insulin signalling and the regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism

Characterization of a 3-phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase which phosphorylates and activates protein kinase Bα

Protein kinase B (PKB) is a proto-oncogene that is activated in signaling pathways initiated by phosphoinositide 3-kinase. Chromatographic separation of brain cytosol revealed a kinase activity that phosphorylated and activated PKB only in the presence of phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate [PtdIns(3,4,5)P3]. Phosphorylation occurred exclusively on threonine-308, a residue implicated in activation of PKB in vivo. PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 was determined to have a dual role: Its binding to the pleckstrin homology domain of PKB was required to allow phosphorylation by the upstream kinase and it directly activated the upstream kinase.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/277/5325/567.full.pdf

Dual Role of Phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate in the Activation of Protein Kinase B

Protein kinase B (PKB) is activated in response to phosphoinositide 3-kinases and their lipid products phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate [PtdIns(3,4,5)P3] and PtdIns(3,4)P2in the signaling pathways used by a wide variety of growth factors, antigens, and inflammatory stimuli. PKB is a direct target of these lipids, but this regulation is complex. The lipids can bind to the pleckstrin homologous domain of PKB, causing its translocation to the membrane, and also enable upstream, Thr308-directed kinases to phosphorylate and activate PKB. Four isoforms of these PKB kinases were purified from sheep brain. They bound PtdIns(3,4,5)P3and associated with lipid vesicles containing it. These kinases contain an NH2-terminal catalytic domain and a COOH-terminal pleckstrin homologous domain, and their heterologous expression augments receptor activation of PKB, which suggests they are the primary signal transducers that enable PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 or PtdIns- (3,4)P2 to activate PKB and hence to control signaling pathways regulating cell survival, glucose uptake, and glycogen metabolism.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/279/5351/710.full.pdf

Colin B. Reese

Papers

Characterization of a 3-phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase which phosphorylates and activates protein kinase Bα

Dual Role of Phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate in the Activation of Protein Kinase B

Protein Kinase B Kinases That Mediate Phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-Trisphosphate-Dependent Activation of Protein Kinase B

3-Phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase-1 (PDK1): structural and functional homology with the Drosophila DSTPK61 kinase.

The chemical synthesis of oligo- and poly-nucleotides by the phosphotriester approach