Human colorectal cancer cell lines treated with several inhibitors of PI3Kinase – AKT signaling pathway. Homo sapiens

Signal transduction processes mediated by phosphatidyl inositol phosphates affect a broad range of cellular processes such as cell cycle progression, migration and cell survival. The protein kinase AKT is one of the major effectors in this signaling network. Chronic AKT activation contributes to oncogenic transformation and tumor development. Therefore, new small drugs were designed to block AKT activity for cancer treatment. Here we characterize the biological effects of the phosphatidyl inositol phosphate analogs SH-5 and SH-6 in colorectal cancer cell lines. We demonstrate that the two compounds did not reduce AKT phosphorylation significantly in the presence of growth factors, but induce a broad range of morphological and transcriptional alterations. Transcriptomic profiling in inhibitor-treated SW480 cells revealed a cluster of down- regulated genes associated with mitosis. Moreover, the treatment of SW480 cells with either SH-5 or SH-6 caused the formation of binucleated cells as a result of a specific abscission defect. Overall design: The cells were treated with certain inhibitors for 48 hours. We used one sample per cell line treated with DMSO as a control, and one sample for each of the treatments.