“…PI3-kinase is the major regulator of neurotrophin-mediated survival in cortical, hippocampal, sensory, and motor neurons (Yao and Cooper, 1995;Skaper et al, 1998;Dolcet et al, 1999;Hetman et al, 1999;Liot et al, 2004), as well as glia (Rodgers and Theibert, 2002). One of the most important targets of PI 3-kinase is Akt (Vanhaesebroeck and Alessi, 2000;Patapoutian and Reichardt, 2001), which is activated after binding with the PI 3-kinase lipid product PI-3,4,5-P 3 or through phosphorylation by another target of PI 3-kinase, that is, PI-dependent kinase-1 (PDK-1) (Alessi et al, 1997). Akt, in turn, inhibits Forkhead transcription factors, responsible for inducing expression of death genes; phosphorylates and therefore inhibits glycogen synthase kinase-3b activity, involved in neuronal apoptosis (Patapoutian and Reichardt, 2001); induces expression of survival genes, such as Bcl-2 and Bcl-x L , by activating cyclicAMP response element binding protein and nuclear factor-kB (Downward, 2004); phosphorylates and deactivates proapoptotic Bad (Datta et al, 2000) and caspase-9 (Zhou et al, 2000); and blocks proapoptotic action of the p75 neurotrophin receptor ).…”