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Smolewski P.
Anticancer Drugs. 2006 Jun;17(5):487-94
Recent developments in targeting the mammalian target of rapamycin
(mTOR) kinase pathway
Department of Hematology, Medical University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland.
piotr_smolewski@wp.pl
The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a threonine kinase
involved in intracellular pro-survival signaling. Its activation leads to
progression from the G1 to S phase of the cell cycle. Constitutive activation of
the mTOR-related messengers, including phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, Akt
kinase, ribosomal p70S6 kinase and eukaryotic translation initiation factor
4E-binding protein kinase, was found in numerous malignancies. Recent data
indicate that the mTOR kinase pathway can be an attractive target for
anti-cancer drug development. A well-known mTOR inhibitor is rapamycin (RAPA),
previously applied as an immunosuppressive agent in transplant studies.
Recently, analogs of RAPA, such as CCI-779, RAD001 and AP23573, have been
developed. All of those agents are currently being tested in patients with solid
or hematological tumors in several clinical trials. This review presents recent
developments in targeting the mTOR kinase pathway.
PMID: 16702804
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