IL37 meets AKT agonist?

[Paralee]

I need some help figuring out what this article is saying about an IL37 and its "job". What if you have a variant in it?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28433890

I think it's maybe saying take an AKT agonist? If someone knows and can help? These articles always confuse me, because it sounds like they're saying things backward.

thanks, Paralee

 

[alicec]

The article is saying that IL37 inhibits proliferation of and induces autophagy and apoptosis in several hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines.

Further studies showed that IL37 treatment reduced levels of several phosphorylated signalling proteins such as pAKT,

and further that a pAKT agonist reversed the IL37-mediated effects on autophagy while a pAKT inhibitor mimicked the effect of IL37.

In other words, treatment with an pAKT agonist - ie increasing pAKT - reverses the action of IL37, while reducing pAKT by use of an inhibitor (ie antagonist) has the same effect as IL37 treatment.

This suggests that the positive effects of IL37 on tumour suppression are mediated (at least in part) by its reduction of pAKT.

There would need to be a lot more studies done before this laboratory experiment could be translated in treatment but just based on this, no, you wouldn't want to take an AKT agonist. This would undo the beneficial effects of IL37.

 

[Paralee]

Thanks, @alicec , I read that again and I could have sworn I had read it said receptor agonist and I thought I had left it out of my post. I didn't see it this time around though. So if you're homozygous with a variant I wonder if there's anything that can be done, seems a little worrisome.

Edit: Sorry, I was looking at the line below it, so I'm hetero.

 

[alicec]

So if you're homozygous with a variant I wonder if there's anything that can be done, seems a little worrisome.

Edit: Sorry, I was looking at the line below it, so I'm hetero.

I don't know what variant you are referring to but just having a variant in a gene doesn't mean anything. Most do nothing, some have a small effect and a few can have quite serious effects. It depends what the variant is, how (if at all) it affects the function or levels of the protein encoded by the gene and if so to what extent. These things can be determined only by specific studies.