In this regard, recent studies showed that small molecule inhibitors of PI3K, the upstream regulator of the pathway, reduced the development of inflammation during acute pancreatitis, a highly debilitating and potentially lethal disease.
Animals were treated with vehicle, melatonin, and melatonin plus phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt inhibitor wortmannin 1 h following the onset of AP.
It was previously demonstrated that the PI3K/Akt inhibitor wortmannin alleviated the severity of inflammation and improved the survival rate in rats with induced severe acute pancreatitis (SAP), which indicates that PI3K/Akt may serve a role in the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis.