Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling is frequently dysregulated in diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) including the favorable germinal centre B-cell (GCB) and the unfavorable activated B-cell (ABC) subtypes. mTOR promotes cap-dependent translation of proteins, like Mcl-1, through inhibitory phosphorylation of the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E binding protein 1 (4EBP1).
Taken together, our results reveal a novel target involved in miR-155 biological characteristics and provide a molecular link between the overexpression of miR-155 and the activation of PI3K-AKT in DLBCL.
These results demonstrate a critical function of PI3K-PDK1 signaling upstream of MALT1 protease and NF-κB in distinct ABC DLBCL cells and provide a rationale for the pharmacologic use of PI3K inhibitors in DLBCL therapy.
This work suggests that multilevel inhibition of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway and double-block of cell cycle progression are effective strategies for DLBCL therapy.
PIK3CA mutations in exons 9 and 20 were investigated in 76 primary human DLBCLs, 3 DLBCL cell lines (LY1, LY8, and LY10), and 9 related samples using polymerase chain reaction-based sequence analysis to assess the possible relevance of PIK3CA mutations in DLBCL to the PI3K/AKT pathway activation.
Our findings highlight the important role of cAMP signaling in DLBCL and suggest that clinically relevant PDE4 and PI3K/AKT inhibitors might be useful in the treatment of DLBCL and additional B-lymphoid malignancies with increased PDE4B expression.