Table 1.

Pharmacological agents that are under clinical evaluation for inhibiting PI3K/Akt3 pathway in melanomas

Agent	Target	Assay to measure the efficacy	Drawbacks/reasons for failure in clinic	Ref.
Perifosine		Western blotting and Immunohistochemistry	Lack of objective response, gastrointestinal and hematological toxicity	94–96, 154–165
17-AAG	HSP90, MAPK and Akt	Western blot and immunohistochemistry	Lack of objective response, Lack of target inhibition	167–170
CCI-779	mTOR	Immunohistochemistry	Lack of sufficient antitumor activity, mild to moderate toxic side effects	128, 171, 172
RAD001	mTOR	Immunohistochemistry	No objective clinical response, grade-2 toxicity	128, 173
API-2	Akt	Western blotting	Toxic side effects including hepatotoxicity, hyperglycemia, thrombocytopenia	110–113
Riluzole	GRM1	Immunohistochemistry	Mild toxicities including dryness in mouth, dizziness, and neurologic toxicity	176–180