Involvement of the Akt/PKB signaling pathway with disease processes.
Akt/PKB is a serine/threonine kinase, which controls vital cellular functions such as cell survival/apoptosis, cell cycle progression and glucose metabolism. Akt/PKB acts down-stream from growth factors and hormones and is a key mediator of their pro-survival, proliferative and metabolic effects. Akt/PKB carries out these diverse tasks through phosphorylation of a number of cellular substrates. The substrates of Akt/PKB, which promote the inhibition of apoptosis after being phosphorylated by Akt, include the Forkhead transcription factors and the Bcl-2 family member Bad. The cyclin dependent kinase inhibitors are substrates of Akt which when phosphorylated relinquish their inhibitory influence on cell cycle progression. Akt mediates many of the stimulatory effects of insulin on glucose metabolism through deactivation of glycogen synthase kinase, activation of phosphofructokinase, and modulation of glucose transporter activity. Consequently, Akt can be implicated in the pathological processes, which are associated with defects in regulation of apoptosis/survival and energy metabolism.
Sen
Prosenjit
P
Crystallography and Molecular Biology Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF Bidhan Nagar, Calcutta, India.
Mukherjee
Sebanti
S
Ray
Doel
D
Raha
Sanghamitra
S
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000502:physiology*; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000502:physiology*; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000378:metabolism; D009004:Monosaccharide Transport Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism; D051025:bcl-Associated Death Protein
D002352:Carrier Proteins; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; D007328:Insulin; D009004:Monosaccharide Transport Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; D014157:Transcription Factors; D051025:bcl-Associated Death Protein; C494819:BAD protein, human; C494918:AKT1 protein, human