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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Jan 7.
Published in final edited form as: Mol Cancer Res. 2014 Jan 7;12(1):14–23. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-13-0541

Figure 2.

Figure 2

A schematic representing nAChR signaling cascades in lung cancer. NNK and nicotine found in tobacco smoke bind to nAChRs with high affinity and induce multiple signaling cascades resulting in cycle progression, proliferation, and survival. Upon activation of nAChRs by ligand binding, β-arrestin-1 is recruited to the receptor and is necessary for further recruitment of Src kinase, which in turn initiates Raf-1 and PI3K/AKT signaling cascades. NNK and nicotine mediated nAChR activation have also been shown to induce signaling cascades such as JAK/STAT and Ras/Raf/MAPK, and decrease the levels of cell cycle inhibitors like p16INK4 and Cip/Kip proteins.