Activating Akt and the brain's resources to drive cellular survival and prevent inflammatory injury.
Protein kinase B, also known as Akt, is a serine/threonine kinase and plays a critical role in the modulation of cell development, growth, and survival. Interestingly, Akt is ubiquitously expressed throughout the body, but its expression in the nervous system is substantially up-regulated during cellular stress, suggesting a more expansive role for Akt in the nervous system that may involve cellular protection. In this regard, a body of recent work has identified a robust capacity for Akt and its downstream substrates to foster both neuronal and vascular survival during apoptotic injury. Cell survival by Akt is driven by the modulation of both intrinsic cellular pathways that oversee genomic DNA integrity and extrinsic mechanisms that control inflammatory microglial activation. A series of distinct pathways are regulated by Akt that include the Forkhead family of transcription factors, GSK-3 beta, beta-catenin, c-Jun, CREB, Bad, IKK, and p53. Culminating below these substrates of Akt are the control of caspase mediated pathways that promote genomic integrity as well as prevent inflammatory cell demise. With further levels of progress in defining the cellular role of Akt, the attractiveness of Akt as a vital and broad cytoprotectant for both neuronal and vascular cell populations should continue to escalate.
Chong
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Division of Cellular and Molecular Cerebral Ischemia, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan 48201, USA.
Li
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Maiese
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D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects*; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000188:drug therapy*; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D010766:Phosphorylation; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism; D051025:bcl-Associated Death Protein
D002352:Carrier Proteins; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; 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