2. Academic Validation
  3. MK-2206 Alleviates Renal Fibrosis by Suppressing the Akt/mTOR Signaling Pathway In Vivo and In Vitro

MK-2206 Alleviates Renal Fibrosis by Suppressing the Akt/mTOR Signaling Pathway In Vivo and In Vitro

  • Cells. 2022 Nov 5;11(21):3505. doi: 10.3390/cells11213505.
Meiling Chen 1,  Yihang Yu 1,  Tao Mi 1,  Qitong Guo 1,  Bin Xiang 1,  Xiaomao Tian 1,  Liming Jin 1,  Chunlan Long 1,  Lianju Shen 1,  Xing Liu 1,  Jianbo Pan 2,  Yuanyuan Zhang 3,  Tao Xu 4,  Deying Zhang 1,  Guanghui Wei 1
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Urology, Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, China International Science and Technology Cooperation Base of Child Development and Critical Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Children Urogenital Development and Tissue Engineering, Chongqing 400014, China.
  • 2 Center for Novel Target and Therapeutic Intervention, Institute of Life Sciences, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400016, China.
  • 3 Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27101, USA.
  • 4 Biomanufacturing Center, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
PMID: 36359901 DOI: 10.3390/cells11213505
Abstract

Renal fibrosis is a common pathological feature of various kidney diseases, leading to irreversible renal failure and end-stage renal disease. However, there are still no effective treatments to reverse renal fibrosis. This study aimed to explore the potential mechanism of a targeted drug for fibrosis. Here, unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO)-treated mice and a TGF-β1-treated human renal tubular epithelial cell line (HK-2 cells) were used as models of renal fibrosis. Based on the changes of mRNA in UUO kidneys detected by transcriptome sequencing, MK-2206, an Akt Inhibitor, was predicted as a potential drug to alleviate renal fibrosis through bioinformatics. We dissolved UUO mice with MK-2206 by gastric gavage and cultured TGF-β-induced HK-2 cells with MK-2206. Histopathological examinations were performed after MK-2206 intervention, and the degree of renal fibrosis, as well as the expression of Akt/mTOR pathway-related proteins, were evaluated by immunohistochemical staining, immunofluorescence staining, and Western blot. The results showed that MK-2206 significantly improved the pathological structure of the kidney. Furthermore, MK-2206 intervention effectively inhibited UUO- and TGF-β1-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition, fibroblast activation, and extracellular matrix deposition. Mechanistically, MK-2206 treatment attenuated the activation of the Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. Taken together, our study revealed for the first time that MK-2206 is a promising drug for the improvement of renal fibrosis.

Keywords

Akt/mTOR signaling pathway; MK-2206; chronic kidney diseases; renal fibrosis.

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