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Author Spotlight: Identifying Compensatory Pathways in Malaria Parasites Containing Hypomorphic Allele of Essential Protein Kinases
Published on: November 22, 2024
PI3K/AKT signaling in parasites and parasite diseases: Role and therapeutic potential
Lujun Yan1, Yating Li1, Xing Yang2
1Key Laboratory of Applied Technology on Animal Science & Veterinary Medicine of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Veterinary Diagnostics & Advanced Technology, Zhejiang International Science and Technology Cooperation Base for Veterinary Medicine and Health Management, Belt and Road International Joint Laboratory for One Health and Food Safety, China-Australia Joint Laboratory for Animal Health Big Data Analytics, College of Veterinary Medicine of Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, China.
Abstract:
Parasite diseases pose a significant threat due to the serious harm they cause to hosts, and developing affordable drugs for treatment presents enormous challenges. "Target repurposing" has emerged as a promising strategy to overcome this difficulty by leveraging the drug targets for human diseases and matching them with homologs in parasites. The PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, known for its crucial role in regulating malignant cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, has been validated as a drug target for cancer. Interestingly, the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway is also involved in parasite development, infection, and survival within the hosts. During infection, parasites can exploit the host's PI3K/AKT signaling, which influences immune cell apoptosis, macrophage activation, regulatory T cell functions, and the communication between immune cells, thus facilitating chronic infection. The immunoregulatory functions of the PI3K/AKT signaling make its inhibitors promising candidates for the control of parasite diseases. This review mainly outlines the characteristics and functions of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway during parasite infection and further provides an overview of the drugs targeting the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway for treating parasite diseases.
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