Skip to content
2000
Volume 15, Issue 12
  • ISSN: 0929-8673
  • E-ISSN: 1875-533X

Abstract

Target of Rapamycin (TOR) signaling, originally discovered as the pathway affected by an antifungal macrolide, exemplifies the potential of medicinal chemistry as a discovery tool. Three decades from its identification, signaling involving the TOR kinase has evolved into a complex network with a crucial role in vertebrate growth control. Specifically, it integrates signals to coordinate cell growth (i.e., enhanced mass and size) and cell cycle progression with sufficiency of nutrients, energy, and growth factors. In this review, we discuss multiple aspects of TOR signaling, including cellular regulators and mediators, human diseases related to TOR dysregulation such as cancer, and signaling nodes in the pathway amenable to targeted drug inhibition. The functions and mechanisms of TOR during embryonic development highlight the dynamic role of TOR signaling and reveal additional functions beyond cell growth control. Embryonic TOR signaling has differential tissue-specific and temporal effects, and is involved in organogenesis, sexual differentiation, and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition signaling. Molecular mechanisms that may contribute to embryonic-specific TOR functions are also examined here. Finally, this review discusses the complex signaling of mTOR in cancer and the development of mTOR inhibitors for cancer therapy.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/cmc/10.2174/092986708784310459
2008-05-01
2025-05-05
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/cmc/10.2174/092986708784310459
Loading

  • Article Type:
    Research Article
Keyword(s): cancer; development; mTOR; regulation; signaling
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test