Akt1/Akt2 inhibition and development of hepatocellular carcinoma

The serine/threonine kinase Akt is a key regulator of important normal cellular activities, including survival, proliferation, differentiation, cell size and glucose metabolism. Akt has also a relevant role in the epithelial–mesenchymal transition during development and tumorigenesis and is a pivotal controller of angiogenesis (1,2). When deregulated, Akt can contribute to cancer development, invasion/metastasis and drug resistance acquisition. It is frequently hyper-activated in human cancer and therefore it is considered an attractive target for therapies based on small molecule inhibitors (3).