Imaging dynamic mTORC1 pathway activity in vivo reveals marked shifts that support time-specific inhibitor therapy in AML

Oki T, Scadden DT et al. · 2021 · Nature Communications · Atlas ID OKI2021

What this study shows

Fluorescent probes imaged in the bone marrow of live mice show mTORC1 activity in AML cells falls as the disease progresses but is high at the moment of maximal chemotherapy response, where it is induced rather than selected; inhibiting mTORC1 at that time improved killing of AML cells.

Abstract

ShowHide

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a high remission, high relapse fatal blood cancer. Although mTORC1 is a master regulator of cell proliferation and survival, its inhibitors have not performed well as AML treatments. To uncover the dynamics of mTORC1 activity in vivo, fluorescent probes are developed to track single cell proliferation, apoptosis and mTORC1 activity of AML cells in the bone marrow of live animals and to quantify these activities in the context of microanatomical localization and intra-tumoral heterogeneity.

Read the full abstract on PubMed →

At a glance

Evidence type	A Animal model Marked A because it is an animal intervention or observation study measuring an organismal outcome (model: Mouse AML model; intravital imaging of bone marrow with fluorescent probes); the code names the system studied -- animal work can be rigorous and still not be human data.
Study type	4 - Animal Study
Model system	Mouse AML model; intravital imaging of bone marrow with fluorescent probes
Journal	Nature Communications
Year	2021
Peer reviewed	Yes
Record last updated	2026-09-23
Source	DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-20491-8 · PMID 33431855 · Free full text (PMC7801403)

Extracted findings

Intervention	Chemotherapy; timed mTORC1 inhibition
Target	mTORC1 (AML cells in vivo)
Model	Mouse
Effect	mTORC1 activity in AML shifts over the course of disease and treatment; timed inhibition works better

Cite this paper

ShowHide

Oki, T., et al. (2021). Imaging dynamic mTORC1 pathway activity in vivo reveals marked shifts that support time-specific inhibitor therapy in AML. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20491-8

@article{OKI2021,
  author       = {Oki, T. and Scadden, D. T. and others},
  title        = {{Imaging dynamic mTORC1 pathway activity in vivo reveals marked shifts that support time-specific inhibitor therapy in AML}},
  journal      = {Nature Communications},
  year         = {2021},
  doi          = {10.1038/s41467-020-20491-8},
  note         = {PMID: 33431855},
}

Cite this Atlas record

The record is the Atlas's own work — the evidence label, the extracted findings and the links. It is cited as part of the dataset, not as the paper.

Barton, O. (2026). Oliver's mTOR Atlas (record OKI2021) [Data set]. https://mtor-atlas.org/study/OKI2021/ · Dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22059963

@misc{atlas_OKI2021,
  author       = {Barton, Oliver},
  title        = {{Oliver's mTOR Atlas}, record OKI2021},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  year         = {2026},
  url          = {https://mtor-atlas.org/study/OKI2021/},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.22059963}
}