※ Akt family introduction

    Akt, also known as protein kinase B or PKB, is a Serine/Threonine protein kinase family. Akt is composed of three isoforms Akt1, Akt2 and Akt3. Akt is recruited to membrane and activated by PDK1 at the downstream of PI3K pathway. Activated Akt phosphorylates a range of downstream substrates such as IRS1, GSK3, mTOR, p21CIP1, p27KIP1, BAD, ASK1, eNOS and so on. Regulation of these substrates by Akt contributes to varieties of cellular processes, including metabolism, translation, proliferation, survival and angiogene. Akt plays a critial role in regulation of important cellular processes, so dysregulated Akt or abnormal expression of Akt gene will contribute a lot of diseases, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and neurological diseases. As central role in cell signaling and disease, the efforts to identify cell permeant Akt inhibitors have been paid all the time. Several regions on Akt proteins are regarded as drug target site and many inhibitors can successfully target in Akt kinase, including ATP-competitive protein kinase inhibitors and Allosteric inhibitors. The research on Akt will give a new sight into disease and the way to cure them (1).

Reference
1. Hers, I., Vincent, E.E. and Tavare, J.M. (2011) Akt signalling in health and disease. Cell Signal, 23, 1515-1527. PMID: 21620960