Courtesy of Biocarta
In addition to cell-cycle regulation, mTOR plays a role in muscle hypertrophy following increased use through the growth factor IGF-1 and tumor suppressor PTEN. Blocking mTOR with drugs like rapamycin prevents muscle growth.
Rapamycin could have been an anti- than tumor contender. Indeed, for more than 30 years, researchers have sized up this immunosuppressant's potential in treating a variety of cancers, including prostate, brain, and lung. Currently, however, the drug is approved only for treating transplant patients. Initial struggles with formulation and the 1982 closure of the original Ayerst laboratory that produced it has kept rapamycin in the background as a cancer therapeutic.
Now, new findings are revealing the details of rapamycin's antitumor abilities through its aptly named therapeutic target, the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). Moreover, the molecular pathways affected by mTOR, a key kinase in regulating cell-cycle progression, have grown to include some of the ...
