The Akt/mTOR pathway in cancer stem/progenitor cells is a potential therapeutic target for glioblastoma and neuroblastoma.

The Akt/mTOR pathway in cancer stem/progenitor cells is a potential therapeutic target for glioblastoma and neuroblastoma. Oncotarget. 2018 Sep 11;9(71):33549-33561 Authors: Bahmad HF, Mouhieddine TH, Chalhoub RM, Assi S, Araji T, Chamaa F, Itani MM, Nokkari A, Kobeissy F, Daoud G, Abou-Kheir W Abstract Nervous system tumors represent some of the highly aggressive cancers in both children and adults, particularly neuroblastoma and glioblastoma. Many studies focused on the pathogenic role of the Akt pathway and the mechanistic target of Rapamycin (mTOR) complex in mediating the progression of various types of cancer, which designates the Akt/mTOR signaling pathway as a master regulator for cancer. Current studies are also elucidating the mechanisms of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in replenishing tumors and explicating the strong correlation between the Akt/mTOR pathway and CSC biology. This instigates the development of novel treatments that target CSCs via inhibiting this pathway to prevent recurrence in various cancer subtypes. In accordance, neuroblastoma and glioblastoma tumors are believed to originate from stem/progenitor cells or dedifferentiated mature neural/glial cells transformed into CSCs, which warrants targeting this subpopulation of CSCs in these tumors. In our study, Triciribine and Rapamycin were used to assess the role of inhibiting two different points of the Akt/mTOR pathway in vitro on U251 (glioblastoma) and SH-SY5Y ...
Source: Oncotarget - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Oncotarget Source Type: research