Therapeutic management of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs) is challenging. The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor everolimus recently obtained approval from the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of patients with advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs). Despite its promising antitumor efficacy observed in cell lines, clinical benefit for patients is unsatisfactory.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Marseille gerontology network consists of a geriatric team providing support in patients' homes across the Marseille urban area. It forms an integral part of the geriatric care sector ensuring that elderly people living at home benefit from a global medical-psychological-social assessment. The aim is to enable elderly people to continue living and receiving care in their home.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs) raise difficult therapeutic problems despite the emergence of targeted therapies. Somatostatin analogs (SSA) remain pivotal therapeutic drugs. However, the tachyphylaxis and the limited antitumoral effects observed with the classical somatostatin 2 (sst2) agonists (octreotide and lanreotide) led to the development of new SSA, such as the pan sst receptor agonist pasireotide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK is a conserved signalling pathway involved in the control of fundamental cellular processes. Despite extensive research, how this pathway can process a myriad of diverse extracellular inputs into substrate specificity to determine biological outcomes is not fully understood. It has been established that the ERK1/2 pathway is an integrative point in the control of the pituitary function exerted by various extracellular signals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn pituitary somatolactotroph cells, G protein-coupled receptors and receptor tyrosine kinases binding their specific ligands trigger an enzymatic cascade that converges to MAP kinase activation in the subcellular compartment. Different signaling pathways, such as AC/cAMP/PKA and PI3K/Akt pathways, interact with MAP kinase to regulate key physiological functions, such as hormonal secretion and cell proliferation. Abnormalities affecting these signaling pathways have been identified as preponderant factors of pituitary tumorigenesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGs alpha, the alpha-subunit of the heterotrimeric GTP-binding protein, is coded from the GNAS gene, which is imprinted in a tissue-specific manner. Gs alpha is paternally silenced in normal pituitary, but Gs alpha imprinting relaxation is found in some tumoral tissue. In addition, Gs alpha mRNA levels are high in some somatotroph adenomas not bearing the active Gs alpha mutant, the gsp oncogene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn pituitary cells, prolactin (PRL) synthesis and release are controlled by multiple transduction pathways. In the GH4C1 somatolactotroph cell line, we previously reported that MAPK ERK-1/2 are a point of convergence between the pathways involved in the PRL gene regulation. In the present study, we focused on the involvement of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway in the MAPK ERK-1/2 regulation and PRL secretion in pituitary cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn pituitary cells, transcriptional regulation of the prolactin (PRL) gene and prolactin secretion are controlled by multiple transduction pathways through the activation of G protein coupled receptors and receptor tyrosine kinases. In the somatolactotrope GH4C1 cell line, we have previously identified crosstalk between the MAPKinase cascade ERK1/2 and the cAMP/protein kinase A pathway after the activation of the VPAC2 receptor by vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) or pituitary adenylyl cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP38). In the present study, we focus on the involvement of the GTPases Ras and Rap1 as downstream components of signal transmission initiated by activation of the VPAC2 receptor.
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