The Patent Landscape of mTOR and PTEN Targets

Background: PTEN and mTOR signaling have many roles, including antiinflammatory, immunosuppressant and cancer. Objective: US patents were retrieved to show the current landscape of the mTOR and PTEN targets. Methods: PTEN and mTOR targets were analyzed by patent analysis. The U.S. granted patents from January 2003 to July 2022 were performed and analyzed. Results: The results showed that the mTOR target was more attractive in drug discovery than the PTEN target. Our findings indicated that most large global pharmaceutical companies focused the drug discovery related to the mTOR target. The present study demonstrated that mTOR and PTEN targets showed more applications in biological approaches compared to BRAF and KRAS targets. The chemical structures of the inhibitors of the mTOR target demonstrated some similar features to those of the inhibitors of KRAS targets. Conclusion: At this stage, the PTEN target may not be an ideal target subjected to new drug discovery. The present study was the first one which demonstrated that the group of O=S=O may play a critical role in the chemical structures of mTOR inhibitors. It was the first time to show that a PTEN target may be suitably subjected to new therapeutic discovery efforts related to biological applications. Our findings provide a recent insight into therapeutic development for mTOR and PTEN targets.