Protein / target
RAC-beta serine/threonine-protein kinase
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Protein serine/threonine kinase activity
Primary system
Nervous system
Strongest disease association
hypoinsulinemic hypoglycemia and body hemihypertrophy
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
1 approved · 12 in clinical development
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function
Serine/threonine kinase closely related to AKT1 and AKT3. All 3 enzymes, AKT1, AKT2 and AKT3, are collectively known as AKT kinase. AKT regulates many processes including metabolism, proliferation, cell survival, growth and angiogenesis, through the phosphorylation of a range of downstream substrates. Over 100 substrates have been reported so far, although for most of them, the precise AKT kinase catalyzing the reaction was not specified. AKT regulates glucose uptake by mediating insulin-induced translocation of the SLC2A4/GLUT4 glucose transporter to the cell surface. Phosphorylation of PTPN1 at 'Ser-50' negatively modulates its phosphatase activity preventing dephosphorylation of the insulin receptor and the attenuation of insulin signaling. Phosphorylation of TBC1D4 triggers the binding of this effector to inhibitory 14-3-3 proteins, which is required for insulin-stimulated glucose transport. AKT also regulates the storage of glucose in the form of glycogen by phosphorylating GSK3A at 'Ser-21' and GSK3B at 'Ser-9', resulting in inhibition of its kinase activity. Phosphorylation of GSK3 isoforms by AKT is also thought to be one mechanism by which cell proliferation is driven. AKT also regulates cell survival via the phosphorylation of MAP3K5 (apoptosis signal-related kinase). Phosphorylation of 'Ser-83' decreases MAP3K5 kinase activity stimulated by oxidative stress and thereby prevents apoptosis. AKT mediates insulin-stimulated protein synthesis by phosphorylating TSC2 at 'Ser-939' and 'Thr-1462', thereby activating mTORC1 signaling and leading to both phosphorylation of 4E-BP1 and in activation of RPS6KB1. AKT is involved in the phosphorylation of members of the FOXO factors (Forkhead family of transcription factors), leading to binding of 14-3-3 proteins and cytoplasmic localization. In particular, FOXO1 is phosphorylated at 'Thr-24', 'Ser-256' and 'Ser-319'. FOXO3 and FOXO4 are phosphorylated on equivalent sites. AKT has an important role in the regulation of NF-kappa-B-dependent gene transcription and positively regulates the activity of CREB1 (cyclic AMP (cAMP)-response element binding protein). The phosphorylation of CREB1 induces the binding of accessory proteins that are necessary for the transcription of pro-survival genes such as BCL2 and MCL1. AKT phosphorylates 'Ser-454' on ATP citrate lyase (ACLY), thereby potentially regulating ACLY activity and fatty acid synthesis. Activates the 3B isoform of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase (PDE3B) via phosphorylation of 'Ser-273', resulting in reduced cyclic AMP levels and inhibition of lipolysis. Phosphorylates PIKFYVE on 'Ser-318', which results in increased PI(3)P-5 activity. The Rho GTPase-activating protein DLC1 is another substrate and its phosphorylation is implicated in the regulation cell proliferation and cell growth. AKT plays a role as key modulator of the AKT-mTOR signaling pathway controlling the tempo of the process of newborn neurons integration during adult neurogenesis, including correct neuron positioning, dendritic development and synapse formation. Signals downstream of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI(3)K) to mediate the effects of various growth factors such as platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1). AKT mediates the antiapoptotic effects of IGF1. Essential for the SPATA13-mediated regulation of cell migration and adhesion assembly and disassembly. May be involved in the regulation of the placental development (PubMed:21432781, PubMed:21620960). In response to lysophosphatidic acid stimulation, inhibits the ciliogenesis cascade. In this context, phosphorylates WDR44, hence stabilizing its interaction with Rab11 and preventing the formation of the ciliogenic Rab11-FIP3-RAB3IP complex. Also phosphorylates RAB3IP/Rabin8, thus may affect RAB3IP guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) activity toward Rab8, which is important for cilia growth (PubMed:31204173). Phosphorylates PKP1, facilitating its interaction with YWHAG and translocation to the nucleus, ultimately resulting in a reduction in keratinocyte intercellular adhesion (By similarity). Phosphorylation of PKP1 increases PKP1 protein stability, translocation to the cytoplasm away from desmosome plaques and PKP1-driven cap-dependent translation (PubMed:23444369)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (41)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Ccell cortex
- Ccytoplasm
- Ccytosol
- Cearly endosome
- Cnucleoplasm
- Cnucleus
- Cplasma membrane
- Cruffle membrane
- FATP binding
- Fmetal ion binding
- Fmolecular function activator activity
- Fprotein serine kinase activity
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Kinase signalling
- ·Serine/threonine kinase closely related to AKT1 and AKT3. All 3 enzymes, AKT1, AKT2 and…
- ·protein serine kinase activity
- ·protein serine/threonine kinase activity
Metabolic enzyme activity
- ·glucose metabolic process
- ·positive regulation of glucose metabolic process
Apoptosis & cell death
- ·apoptotic process
- ·negative regulation of apoptotic process
Synaptic signalling
- ·Serine/threonine kinase closely related to AKT1 and AKT3. All 3 enzymes, AKT1, AKT2 and…
Immune signalling
- ·fat cell differentiation
Transcriptional regulation
- ·Serine/threonine kinase closely related to AKT1 and AKT3. All 3 enzymes, AKT1, AKT2 and…
View underlying pathways (25)Hide underlying pathways
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Interaction neighbourhood
Proteins with the strongest functional or physical association. Node size and line weight reflect STRING confidence; hover or select a partner to inspect one association.
Functional and physical associations from STRING v12.0. Only associations with this protein are drawn — partner-to-partner links are not part of this evidence.
Drugs targeting this protein
Whether each drug engages this protein directly or through a complex, and how many other targets are recorded for it. Direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.
Serine/threonine-protein kinase AKT inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving breast cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, triple-negative breast carcinoma
Serine/threonine-protein kinase AKT inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving breast cancer, breast neoplasm, neoplasm, triple-negative breast carcinoma
ChEMBL mechanism, action type and target identity. Open Targets clinical status and indications.
Translational evidence
Why this target matters therapeutically — disease associations, drugs in development, tractability and safety, from Open Targets.
Strongest genetic associations
Human genetic evidence — the most direct causal link between this target and a disease.
Highest-confidence therapeutic associations
Diseases where a drug acting on this target has already reached clinical development.
Highest overall evidence
Remaining associations by Open Targets' aggregated evidence score.
Show all associationsHide all associations
Open Targets ranks 725 associations for this target and we store the top 10 by aggregated score. The long tail is largely literature co-mention and RNA-expression evidence, not evidence that this target drives those diseases.
Known drugs · 13 total
neoplasm
Proteus syndrome · pik3ca related overgrowth spectrum · PIK3CA-related overgrowth spectrum
non-small cell lung carcinoma · breast cancer · ovarian cancer
lymphoma · hematopoietic and lymphoid cell neoplasm
breast cancer · colorectal cancer · prostate cancer
ovarian cancer · breast cancer · metastatic malignant neoplasm
colorectal cancer · lymphoma · acute myeloid leukemia
breast cancer
Tractability
Safety liabilities
Clinical trials
Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein.
Show remaining trials (24)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
Forefront confidence
Our own weighting of the evidence behind each disease association. Human genetics and clinical evidence count for most; literature co-mention counts for little, because two entities sharing an abstract is not evidence that one drives the other.
This ranking differs from Open Targets' own: re-weighting moves genetically-evidenced diseases above more heavily co-mentioned ones. The evidence agreement range shows how closely the independent evidence families agree — it is not a statistical confidence interval, and nothing here is fitted to outcome data. Derived from Open Targets evidence types under Forefront weighting; the underlying per-type scores are shown above so the calculation can be checked.
What's happening now
Recent activity around this target, drawn from one canonical event stream. Every item is reached through 2 drugs that target this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.
- Indication expanded
Indication expansion: CAPIVASERTIB (NDA218197)
- Label change
Label change: CAPIVASERTIB (NDA218197)
- Label change
Label change: CAPIVASERTIB (NDA218197)
- Label change
Label change: CAPIVASERTIB (NDA218197)
- Label change
Label change: CAPIVASERTIB (NDA218197)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Truqap (EMA)
- New publicationCapivasertib: A Novel AKT Inhibitor Approved for Hormone-Receptor-Positive, HER-2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer.
- New publicationEndocrine and Targeted Therapy for Hormone Receptor-Positive, Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer-Capivasertib-Fulvestrant: ASCO Rapid Recommendation Update.
- New publicationFirst-Line Ipatasertib, Atezolizumab, and Taxane Triplet for Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Clinical and Biomarker Results.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: CAPIVASERTIB (NDA218197)
- New publicationCapivasertib in Hormone Receptor-Positive Advanced Breast Cancer.
- New publicationCirculating tumour DNA analysis to direct therapy in advanced breast cancer (plasmaMATCH): a multicentre, multicohort, phase 2a, platform trial.
Objective event titles are shown unmodified; the event kind and significance line are derived from structured fields. Forefront AttentionEvent stream aggregating Europe PMC Regulatory filings ClinicalTrials.gov.