Dominant negative inhibitors of signalling through the phosphoinositol 3-kinase pathway for gene therapy of pancreatic cancer

BACKGROUND: Ras signalling is frequently aberrant in pancreatic cancer so that there is constitutive activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and AKT/protein kinase B pathway, as well as the RAF/MEK/ERK pathway. AIMS: In the present study we investigated the role of the PI3K/AKT pathway in malignant transformation of pancreatic cancer cells. METHODS: A genetic approach was used to interfere with signal transduction in vitro and in vivo. RASN17, a dominant negative mutant of RAS, was applied to inhibit the PI3K/AKT pathway upstream of PI3K. The regulatory p85beta subunit of PI3K and the negative regulator PTEN were utilised to inhibit the pathway at the level of PI3K, and AAA-AKT, a dominant negative mutant of AKT was employed to interfere with PI3K/AKT signalling at the level of AKT. RESULTS: Antiproliferative, proapoptotic, and anticancer effects were documented, showing that inhibition of the PI3K pathway in these cell lines suppresses tumour cell growth in vitro and reduces growth in nude mice. CONCLUSIONS: The PI3K/AKT pathway represents a potential therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer, and gene therapy may be one approach to produce selective inhibition.