Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) family of signalling enzymes and their role in asthma

Phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3K) are a family of closely related lipid kinases essential for diverse physiological reactions of inflammatory cells, controlling cell growth, differentiation, proliferation, survival and migration. Pharmacological inhibition by compounds such as wortmannin and LY294002 has been useful in demonstrating the involvement of this enzyme family in allergic inflammatory responses, but could not be used to discriminate between distinct PI3K isoforms. More recently, however, it has become apparent that individual PI3K isoforms regulate distinct cellular events, opening up the therapeutic opportunities for PI3K inhibition in a range of diseases including asthma.

Section editors:Maria Belvisi – Imperial College School of Medicine, London, UKStuart Farrow – GlaxoSmithKline, Stevenage, UK