Akt

VE-cadherin-induced Akt activation mediates YAP phosphorylation and translocation in ECs. HUVECs were starved for 1h and treated with thrombin (1U) for 1h. Total cell lysates were probed with anti-pAkt, Akt or b-actin antibody. The representative blots of three independent experiments are depicted, and the normalized values for p-Akt are shown. HUVECs were cultured and starved as described as in d and incubated for 8h in complete medium with the Akt inhibitor, MK-2206 (1 uM). pAkt, Akt, pYAP and YAP were detected by western blotting using specific antibodies.

Tumor growth of 827 GSC-derived xenografts treated with an AKT inhibitor perifosine (30 mg/kg body weight). Twenty-three days after tumor implantation in mice, perifosine was administered by intraperitoneal injection (daily for 5 days). Error bars represent SD. Five mice per group, *p < 0.01.

Along with cell death, immunoblotting shows ON 01910.Na induces hyperphosphorylation of RanGAP1, increased expression of RanGAP1.SUMO1 but decreased expression of free unmodified RanGAP1. No viable SU-DHL-5 cells were available for immunoblotting at 0.5 uM of ON 01910.Na.

Inhibition of AKT signaling abolishes MKK4 phosphorylation on Ser78 in injured axons. Cultures of sensory neurons were treated with 5 µM MK-2206 or 5 µM GDC-0068 for 1 hr prior to axotomy. Axonal proteins harvested at indicated time points after axotomy were subjected to immunoblot analysis.

Inhibition of PI3K and Akt by LY294002 and AZD5363 was confirmed by analyzing expression and activation status of the ribosomal protein S6 by Western blot analysis of PC-3 clone #14 cells treated with 0.5 or 5 uM AZD5363 (AZD) and 10 uM LY294002 (LY). Tubulin was used as a loading control.

BMDMs from WT animals were treated with different concentrations of PI3K inhibitors (500 nmol/L PF4691502, PI-103, BKM120 and 25 μmol/L SF1126) followed by hypoxia for 4 hours for Western blots. These macrophages were either used for lysate preparation (nuclear extracts for HIFα or WCE for pAKT and AKT) and Western blot analysis.

UMUC-6 cells were treated with the indicated concentrations of AT7867 for 72 hours.  Relative cytotoxicity compared to untreated control cells was assessed by alamarBlue.  Each data points represents the mean of three independent experiments and the error bars represent the standard error of the mean.

Effect of triciribine on the migration of (A) FaDu and (B) Hep2 cells. The cells were treated with 5 µM triciribine for different periods of time. *P<0.05 vs. control. Hpf, high-power field.

PI3K/AKT were involved in the E2 induced decrease of Caov-3 cell anoikis. Caov-3 cells were pretreated by different signaling pathway inhibitors and Bit1 expression was determined by western blotting.

B cells were pre-treated with the indicated concentrations of A-674563 for 1h prior to R848 treatment (500 ng/ml).  Thymidine incorporation was analyzed 24h later.

The inhibition of PI3K/Akt pathway is involved in ATG-induced FOXO3a dephosphorylation in PDGF-BB-activated HSCs. Serum-starved LX-2 human HSCs were pretreated with or without DMSO (vehicle) or ATG (0.5 uM) for 4 h, in the absence or presence of PI3K inhibitor LY294002 (20 uM) or Akt inhibitor PHT-427 (20 uM), and then incubated with or without 50 ng/ml PDGF-BB for 4 h. After treatment, aliquots of whole cell lysates were collected and subjected to Western blotting analysis. The experiments were repeated three times with similar results and a representative blot was shown for each protein. Total protein levels of Akt and FOXO3a served as internal controls.

Effects of a miltefosine co-treatment with celecoxib on steatohepatitis, hepatocyte apoptosis, Akt activation and p53 expression in the liver of MCD-diet fed mice. Mice were fed the control diet, an MCD diet, an MCD diet with celecoxib (20 mg/kg/day) treatment, or an MCD diet co-treatment with celecoxib and miltefosine (50 mg/kg/day) for 3 weeks. (C) TUNEL-stained sections of liver samples are representative of the indicated groups (magnification×400). Abbreviations: MCD, methionine and choline deficient; CON, control; CEL, celecoxib; MTF, miltefosine.

(B) Cleaved PARP, Bax and Bcl2 protein expression was evaluated by immunoblotting of KRAS mutant cells lysates after 48 h of honokiol (10, 20, 40, and 60 μM) treatment. ∗∗P < 0.01 and ∗∗∗P < 0.001 for comparison between control group and honokiol-treated group.

Parental cell line wastreated with Akt inhibitor (GSK2141795) and BGJ398. The 5 uM BGJ398 resistant cell line was treated with GSK2141795, BGJ398, and 2 concentrations of GSK2141795 and varying dosages of BGJ398. The parental cell line treated with GSK2141795, the dark green line, indicates minimal effect of the inhibitor compared to the resistant cell line treated GSK2141795, the light purple line. However, when the resistant cell line is treated with both GSK2141795 and BGJ398 there is a greater decrease in cell viability compared to the resistant cell line that is treated only with GSK2141795.

Established HCC cell lines, HepG2 (A-C) and Huh-7 (D), primary human HCC cells (D, "Pri_1/Pri _2"), as well as HL-7702 human hepatocytes (D) and primary human adult hepatocytes ("Hepatocytes", D), were either left untreated ("C", same for all figures), or treated with applied concentration of TIC10 (0.1-30 μM), cells were then cultured in conditional medium for applied time; Cell proliferation was tested by MTT assay (A and D), clonogenicity assay (B) and [H3] Thymidine incorporation assay (C). Experiments in this figure were repeated for five times, with similar results obtained. n = 5 for each repeat. Bars stand for mean ± SD. *p < 0.05 vs. group "C".

AKTi-1/2 inhibits human HCC cells in vitro. Human HCC HepG2 cells (A–F), Huh-7 cells (G), primary human HCC cells (“Pri HCC”, G) or the primary liver cells (“Pri liver cells”, G) were treated with/out applied concentrations of AKTi-1/2 for indicated time; Cell survival (A, B and G), proliferation (C and D) and apoptosis (E and F) were tested by the listed assays. Data were shown as the mean (n = 5) with the standard deviation (SD). Experiments in this figure were repeated three times, with similar results were obtained. *P < 0.05 vs. “C” (untreated control) group.

ARQ-092, a novel pan-AKT inhibitor, promotes axonal recovery when applied pre- and post-OGD. ARQ-092, which is an inhibitor of activated AKT, promoted axon function recovery when applied as a pre-treatment and as a post-treatment. A) Pre-treatment with ARQ-092 (500 nM, dark blue) applied before OGD promoted consistent and sustained CAP area recovery. B) ARQ-092 improved CAP area recovery at 250 nM and 500 nM when compared to control CAP area recovery. C) ARQ-092 (500 nM, brown) applied after OGD promoted consistent and sustained CAP area recovery. D) ARQ-092 improved CAP area recovery at 250 and 500 nM compared to control CAP area recovery. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01, one-way ANOVA with Newman-Keuls post hoc test. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

After starved in serum-free medium for 24h,A549 cells incubated with the indicated concentrations of Quercetin for 3h,followed by 20-minute stimolation of 100ng/ml EGF.

Analysis of the mechanism of action of the enhanced anti‑tumor effect of the combination therapy of suboptimal doses of pomalidomide plus dexamethasone and afuresertib in MM cells. (A‑C) The altered expression of protein substrates was analyzed in two MM cell lines that were treated with suboptimal doses of PD, or AFU, or the PD and AFU combination. The XG‑7 and U266 cell lines were subjected to the indicated treatments for 48 and 72 h, respectively. (A) Caspases, (B) substrates related mainly to the working mechanism of IMiDs, (C) substrates mainly related to the working mechanism of afuresertib, and (D) two primary MM cell cultures, were subjected to the analysis in the same manner as the two MM cell lines. In the expression panel of p‑FoxO3a/FoxO1, the upper band represents p‑FoxO3a and the lower band represents p‑FOXO1. PD, pomalidomide plus dexamethasone; AFU, Afuresertib; MM, multiple myeloma; IMiDs, immunomodulatory drugs.

Histopathological analysis of H460 tumors following combination treatment with oridonin and radiation. Hematoxylin and eosin (H-E) staining and immunohistochemistry for cleaved caspase-3 and γ-H2AX were performed on tumors harvested at 14 days after IR. Representative images of H-E-stained tumors (upper images) and cleaved caspase-3- and γ-H2AX-positive cells (middle images, brown staining) and quantification of cleaved caspase-3 and γ-H2AX-positive staining with six mice in each group (lower plots, means ± SEM) are shown; * p < 0.05.

AT13148 exerts cytotoxic and anti-proliferative activity against human gastric cancer cells. Human gastric cancer cells (HGC-27, AGS, SNU-601, N87 and MKN-28 lines) or GEC-1 gastric epithelial cells were treated with applied concentration of AT13148 for indicated time, cell survival (A and E), cell proliferation (B and F), cell cycle distribution (C, for HGC-27 cells) and cell death (D, for HGC-27 cells) were tested by the described assays, separately. Data were presented as mean ± SD. “Ctrl” stands for untreated control cells (For all figures). “hr/hrs” stands for hour/hours (For all figures). Experiments in this figure were repeated for five times. *p < 0.05 vs. “Ctrl” group.

Cells with OGN over-expression were challenged with EGF (100 ng/mL) and pretreated with SC79 (constitutive Akt activator) for 24 h. Western blotting with the significantly altered markers was performed.

VE-cadherin-induced Akt activation mediates YAP phosphorylation and translocation in ECs. HUVECs were starved for 1h and treated with thrombin (1U) for 1h. Total cell lysates were probed with anti-pAkt, Akt or b-actin antibody. The representative blots of three independent experiments are depicted, and the normalized values for p-Akt are shown. HUVECs were cultured and starved as described as in d and incubated for 8h in complete medium with the Akt inhibitor, MK-2206 (1 uM). pAkt, Akt, pYAP and YAP were detected by western blotting using specific antibodies.

Tumor growth of 827 GSC-derived xenografts treated with an AKT inhibitor perifosine (30 mg/kg body weight). Twenty-three days after tumor implantation in mice, perifosine was administered by intraperitoneal injection (daily for 5 days). Error bars represent SD. Five mice per group, *p < 0.01.

Along with cell death, immunoblotting shows ON 01910.Na induces hyperphosphorylation of RanGAP1, increased expression of RanGAP1.SUMO1 but decreased expression of free unmodified RanGAP1. No viable SU-DHL-5 cells were available for immunoblotting at 0.5 uM of ON 01910.Na.

Inhibition of AKT signaling abolishes MKK4 phosphorylation on Ser78 in injured axons. Cultures of sensory neurons were treated with 5 µM MK-2206 or 5 µM GDC-0068 for 1 hr prior to axotomy. Axonal proteins harvested at indicated time points after axotomy were subjected to immunoblot analysis.

Inhibition of PI3K and Akt by LY294002 and AZD5363 was confirmed by analyzing expression and activation status of the ribosomal protein S6 by Western blot analysis of PC-3 clone #14 cells treated with 0.5 or 5 uM AZD5363 (AZD) and 10 uM LY294002 (LY). Tubulin was used as a loading control.

BMDMs from WT animals were treated with different concentrations of PI3K inhibitors (500 nmol/L PF4691502, PI-103, BKM120 and 25 μmol/L SF1126) followed by hypoxia for 4 hours for Western blots. These macrophages were either used for lysate preparation (nuclear extracts for HIFα or WCE for pAKT and AKT) and Western blot analysis.

UMUC-6 cells were treated with the indicated concentrations of AT7867 for 72 hours.  Relative cytotoxicity compared to untreated control cells was assessed by alamarBlue.  Each data points represents the mean of three independent experiments and the error bars represent the standard error of the mean.

Effect of triciribine on the migration of (A) FaDu and (B) Hep2 cells. The cells were treated with 5 µM triciribine for different periods of time. *P<0.05 vs. control. Hpf, high-power field.

PI3K/AKT were involved in the E2 induced decrease of Caov-3 cell anoikis. Caov-3 cells were pretreated by different signaling pathway inhibitors and Bit1 expression was determined by western blotting.

B cells were pre-treated with the indicated concentrations of A-674563 for 1h prior to R848 treatment (500 ng/ml).  Thymidine incorporation was analyzed 24h later.

The inhibition of PI3K/Akt pathway is involved in ATG-induced FOXO3a dephosphorylation in PDGF-BB-activated HSCs. Serum-starved LX-2 human HSCs were pretreated with or without DMSO (vehicle) or ATG (0.5 uM) for 4 h, in the absence or presence of PI3K inhibitor LY294002 (20 uM) or Akt inhibitor PHT-427 (20 uM), and then incubated with or without 50 ng/ml PDGF-BB for 4 h. After treatment, aliquots of whole cell lysates were collected and subjected to Western blotting analysis. The experiments were repeated three times with similar results and a representative blot was shown for each protein. Total protein levels of Akt and FOXO3a served as internal controls.

Effects of a miltefosine co-treatment with celecoxib on steatohepatitis, hepatocyte apoptosis, Akt activation and p53 expression in the liver of MCD-diet fed mice. Mice were fed the control diet, an MCD diet, an MCD diet with celecoxib (20 mg/kg/day) treatment, or an MCD diet co-treatment with celecoxib and miltefosine (50 mg/kg/day) for 3 weeks. (C) TUNEL-stained sections of liver samples are representative of the indicated groups (magnification×400). Abbreviations: MCD, methionine and choline deficient; CON, control; CEL, celecoxib; MTF, miltefosine.

(B) Cleaved PARP, Bax and Bcl2 protein expression was evaluated by immunoblotting of KRAS mutant cells lysates after 48 h of honokiol (10, 20, 40, and 60 μM) treatment. ∗∗P < 0.01 and ∗∗∗P < 0.001 for comparison between control group and honokiol-treated group.

Parental cell line wastreated with Akt inhibitor (GSK2141795) and BGJ398. The 5 uM BGJ398 resistant cell line was treated with GSK2141795, BGJ398, and 2 concentrations of GSK2141795 and varying dosages of BGJ398. The parental cell line treated with GSK2141795, the dark green line, indicates minimal effect of the inhibitor compared to the resistant cell line treated GSK2141795, the light purple line. However, when the resistant cell line is treated with both GSK2141795 and BGJ398 there is a greater decrease in cell viability compared to the resistant cell line that is treated only with GSK2141795.

Established HCC cell lines, HepG2 (A-C) and Huh-7 (D), primary human HCC cells (D, "Pri_1/Pri _2"), as well as HL-7702 human hepatocytes (D) and primary human adult hepatocytes ("Hepatocytes", D), were either left untreated ("C", same for all figures), or treated with applied concentration of TIC10 (0.1-30 μM), cells were then cultured in conditional medium for applied time; Cell proliferation was tested by MTT assay (A and D), clonogenicity assay (B) and [H3] Thymidine incorporation assay (C). Experiments in this figure were repeated for five times, with similar results obtained. n = 5 for each repeat. Bars stand for mean ± SD. *p < 0.05 vs. group "C".

AKTi-1/2 inhibits human HCC cells in vitro. Human HCC HepG2 cells (A–F), Huh-7 cells (G), primary human HCC cells (“Pri HCC”, G) or the primary liver cells (“Pri liver cells”, G) were treated with/out applied concentrations of AKTi-1/2 for indicated time; Cell survival (A, B and G), proliferation (C and D) and apoptosis (E and F) were tested by the listed assays. Data were shown as the mean (n = 5) with the standard deviation (SD). Experiments in this figure were repeated three times, with similar results were obtained. *P < 0.05 vs. “C” (untreated control) group.

ARQ-092, a novel pan-AKT inhibitor, promotes axonal recovery when applied pre- and post-OGD. ARQ-092, which is an inhibitor of activated AKT, promoted axon function recovery when applied as a pre-treatment and as a post-treatment. A) Pre-treatment with ARQ-092 (500 nM, dark blue) applied before OGD promoted consistent and sustained CAP area recovery. B) ARQ-092 improved CAP area recovery at 250 nM and 500 nM when compared to control CAP area recovery. C) ARQ-092 (500 nM, brown) applied after OGD promoted consistent and sustained CAP area recovery. D) ARQ-092 improved CAP area recovery at 250 and 500 nM compared to control CAP area recovery. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01, one-way ANOVA with Newman-Keuls post hoc test. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

After starved in serum-free medium for 24h,A549 cells incubated with the indicated concentrations of Quercetin for 3h,followed by 20-minute stimolation of 100ng/ml EGF.

Analysis of the mechanism of action of the enhanced anti‑tumor effect of the combination therapy of suboptimal doses of pomalidomide plus dexamethasone and afuresertib in MM cells. (A‑C) The altered expression of protein substrates was analyzed in two MM cell lines that were treated with suboptimal doses of PD, or AFU, or the PD and AFU combination. The XG‑7 and U266 cell lines were subjected to the indicated treatments for 48 and 72 h, respectively. (A) Caspases, (B) substrates related mainly to the working mechanism of IMiDs, (C) substrates mainly related to the working mechanism of afuresertib, and (D) two primary MM cell cultures, were subjected to the analysis in the same manner as the two MM cell lines. In the expression panel of p‑FoxO3a/FoxO1, the upper band represents p‑FoxO3a and the lower band represents p‑FOXO1. PD, pomalidomide plus dexamethasone; AFU, Afuresertib; MM, multiple myeloma; IMiDs, immunomodulatory drugs.

Histopathological analysis of H460 tumors following combination treatment with oridonin and radiation. Hematoxylin and eosin (H-E) staining and immunohistochemistry for cleaved caspase-3 and γ-H2AX were performed on tumors harvested at 14 days after IR. Representative images of H-E-stained tumors (upper images) and cleaved caspase-3- and γ-H2AX-positive cells (middle images, brown staining) and quantification of cleaved caspase-3 and γ-H2AX-positive staining with six mice in each group (lower plots, means ± SEM) are shown; * p < 0.05.

AT13148 exerts cytotoxic and anti-proliferative activity against human gastric cancer cells. Human gastric cancer cells (HGC-27, AGS, SNU-601, N87 and MKN-28 lines) or GEC-1 gastric epithelial cells were treated with applied concentration of AT13148 for indicated time, cell survival (A and E), cell proliferation (B and F), cell cycle distribution (C, for HGC-27 cells) and cell death (D, for HGC-27 cells) were tested by the described assays, separately. Data were presented as mean ± SD. “Ctrl” stands for untreated control cells (For all figures). “hr/hrs” stands for hour/hours (For all figures). Experiments in this figure were repeated for five times. *p < 0.05 vs. “Ctrl” group.

Cells with OGN over-expression were challenged with EGF (100 ng/mL) and pretreated with SC79 (constitutive Akt activator) for 24 h. Western blotting with the significantly altered markers was performed.