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.