MTOR and acute lymphoblastic leukemia: However, while PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling mediated by IL7 promotes proliferation and survival of T-ALL cells by inducing downregulation of p27kip1 and upregulation of Bcl-2 [35,36], in healthy T cells PI3K signaling activation by IL7 induces cell cycle progression without influencing cell survival [37,38].