p110-Beta Drives Cancer Growth When PTEN is Inhibited, Animal Study Shows

Mice that are prone to develop prostate tumors because they lack the PTEN tumor-suppressor protein remained cancer free when researchers disabled the growth-stimulating p110-beta protein, suggesting that this protein could be a promising prostate cancer drug target (Nature doi:10.1038/nature07091).

“The surprise is that p110-beta has been found to be a bigger player than p110-alpha in tumors that result from PTEN loss,” said Jean Zhao, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “Now the drug companies that have been focusing on p110-alpha, will have to think about making p110-beta inhibitors as well.” The authors speculate that p110-beta may be providing a low-level but steady growth stimulus, and when PTEN is lost, it becomes an important source of cell proliferation signals.