title: PTEN: a yin-yang master regulator protein in health and disease.
abstract: The PTEN gene is a tumor suppressor gene frequently mutated in human tumors, which encodes a ubiquitous protein whose major activity is to act as a lipid phosphatase that counteracts the action of the oncogenic PI3K. In addition, PTEN displays protein phosphatase- and catalytically-independent activities. The physiologic control of PTEN function, and its inactivation in cancer and other human diseases, including some neurodevelopmental disorders, is upon the action of multiple regulatory mechanisms. This provides a wide spectrum of potential therapeutic approaches to reconstitute PTEN activity. By contrast, inhibition of PTEN function may be beneficial in a different group of human diseases, such as type 2 diabetes or neuroregeneration-related pathologies. This makes PTEN a functionally dual yin-yang protein with high potential in the clinics. Here, a brief overview on PTEN and its relation with human disease is presented.
authors.affiliation: BioCruces Health Research Institute, Barakaldo, Spain; IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain. Electronic address: rpulido@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pulido
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D051059:PTEN Phosphohydrolase / Q000502:physiology*; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D016709:Yin-Yang
chemical_list: D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins; D051059:PTEN Phosphohydrolase; C494929:PTEN protein, human
keywords: Diabetes; Lipid phosphatase; Neuroregeneration; Neurosurvival; Oncogenesis; PTEN; Protein tyrosine phosphatase; Tumor suppression