[Research advances on the relationship of PI3-kinase/Akt/mTOR pathway and epigenetic modification].

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) has been shown to link growth factor signaling and posttranscriptional control of protein translation through activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway, which is frequently involved in cell cycle progression. The inhibition of mTOR has promising potential in anticancer and immunosuppressive therapies, and additional phase II clinical trials are ongoing. Epigenetic modification, which involves DNA methylation, histone modification and chromatin remodeling, as well as the recently described RNAi mechanism, can initiate the formation of silenced chromatin. Persistent activation or inhibition of the mTOR pathway may affect epigenetic modification. In this paper, we reviewed the research advances in the relationship between PI3K/Akt/mTOR and epigenetic modification.