title: Systems biology of the metabolic network regulated by the Akt pathway.
abstract: Cancer has been proposed as an example of systems biology disease or network disease. Accordingly, tumor cells differ from their normal counterparts more in terms of intracellular network dynamics than single markers. Here we shall focus on a recently recognized hallmark of cancer, the deregulation of cellular energetics. The constitutive activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway has been confirmed as an essential step toward cell transformation. We will consider how the effects of Akt activation are connected with cell metabolism; more precisely, we will review existing metabolic models and discuss the current knowledge available to construct a kinetic model of the most relevant metabolic processes regulated by the PI3K/Akt pathway. The model will enable a systems biology approach to predict the metabolic targets that may inhibit cell growth under hyper activation of Akt.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomedical Technologies, CNR, Segrate, Italy. ettore.mosca@itb.cnr.it
authors.forename: Ettore
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mosca
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barcella
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Alfieri
authors.forename: Annamaria
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bevilacqua
authors.forename: Gianfranco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Canti
authors.forename: Luciano
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Milanesi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D006801:Humans; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D008954:Models, Biological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D049490:Systems Biology
chemical_list: D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt