Inactivation of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is
IntroductionWhile PTEN displays phosphatase activity for both protein and lipid substrates (1), accumulating evidence reveals that its lipid phosphatase activity, which dephosphorylates the 3ʹ-position phosphate from the inositol ring of phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-triphosphate (PIP 3 ) (2, 3), contributes to PTEN's tumor suppression activities. Thus, PTEN directly antagonizes a critical oncogenic activity mediated by PI3K (4, 5).Consistent with its biochemical functions, inactivation of PTEN is a critical step during tumorigenesis. Typical mechanisms responsible for PTEN inactivation in human cancers include genetic and epigenetic events. The PTEN gene is frequently mutated in human cancers (6-8), including more than 50% of glioblastomas and melanomas, 30%-50% of endometrial carcinomas, and 10% of breast cancers (4, 9, 10). A missense mutation, PTEN/G129E, leading to loss of PTEN's PIP 3 phosphatase activity (4, 11), was detected in Cowden disease (12), a multiple hamartoma syndrome with predisposition to multisystemic malignant tumors (13). Hypermethylation of the PTEN promoter in sporadic colorectal cancers and reduction of PTEN protein without mutations in the PTEN gene in prostate and cervical cancers have also been observed (14-16).Inactivation of PTEN is known to contribute to cervical tumorigenesis. Low levels (2%-16%) of mutations in the PTEN gene as well as the loss of heterozygosity of PTEN have been reported in cervical cancer (17)(18)(19)(20). Consistent with the hypermethylation of PTEN in cervical cancer, reduction in the PTEN protein was observed in approximately 15% of cervical squamous cell carcinomas (21,22). Furthermore, essential pathways that promote cervical tumorigenesis have been shown to inhibit PTEN function. The E6 and E7