[The Relationship between the PI3K/Akt/mTOR Signal Transduction Pathway and Non-small Cell Lung Cancer.].

Abstract

BACKGROUND: It has been known that abnormality of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signal pathway plaied an important role in the oncogenesis of lung cancer. In this study, we tried to detect the mRNA expression levels of VEGF, PI3K, Akt, mTOR gene, the key genes of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signal pathway, in human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissue and explore the relationship between PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway and non-small cell lung cancer. METHODS: Lung cancer tissue specimens were obtained from 40 patients. Adjacent-tumor NSCLC tissues from the 30 patients were served as control. The RT-PCR technique was used to detect the VEGF, PI3K, Akt, mTOR gene expression levels. RESULTS: The average mRNA expression levels of VEGF, PI3K, Akt, mTOR gene in lung cancer were (40+/-59)%, (61+/-23)%, (77+/-32)% and (43+/-21)% respectively, while the mRNA expression levels of VEGF, PI3K, Akt, mTOR genes in adjacent-tumor tissue were (16+/-40)%, (23+/-16)%, (10+/-12)% and (20+/-17)%, respectively. All the levels of VEGF, PI3K, Akt, mTOR gene expression in NSCLC were significantly higher than that in adjacent-tumor lung tissue (P <0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary data have demonstrated that PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway is activated in the tumor cells of NSCLC. The activated PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway might be an important role in the pathogenesis of NSCLC.