AKT1 and posterior cortical atrophy: While this pro-proliferative activity of sGC-cGMP pathway might be, in part, due to the activation of PI3K/AKT signaling (see Fig. 4), which is an important downstream target of NO-cGMP pathway in regulating cell survival, migration and angiogenesis [27–30], other cGMP-regulated pathways, including calcium signaling and cytokine receptor activation, may also contribute to the PCa development.