{"entity":{"id":"itk","kind":"target","name":"ITK","aka":["IL2 inducible T cell kinase","Tyrosine-protein kinase ITK/TSK","PSCTK2"],"tldr":"ITK (Tyrosine-protein kinase ITK/TSK) is a protein kinase, an enzyme that switches other proteins on by adding phosphate groups. The public catalogues list it as a drug target, and an approved or late-stage drug is recorded against it. Tied to Renal cell carcinoma and Sarcomas.","summary":"Tyrosine kinase that plays an essential role in regulation of the adaptive immune response. Regulates the development, function and differentiation of conventional T-cells and nonconventional NKT-cells. When antigen presenting cells (APC) activate T-cell receptor (TCR), a series of phosphorylation lead to the recruitment of ITK to the cell membrane, in the vicinity of the stimulated TCR receptor, where it is phosphorylated by LCK.\n\nOpen Targets scores its association with cancer at 0.68 (direct and indirect evidence; datatypes clinical 0.97, literature 0.90, genetic association 0.00, somatic mutation 0.50, animal model 0.34). In OnCo, 3 product records name it (Ibrutinib, Acalabrutinib and Soquelitinib).","asOf":"2026-09-23","links":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:6171","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:6171"},{"label":"UniProt Q08881","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q08881/entry"},{"label":"NCBI Gene 3702","url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/3702"},{"label":"Ensembl ENSG00000113263","url":"https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000113263"}],"tags":["cancer-genes-wave"],"related":["open-targets"],"cancers":["rcc","sarcoma"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["acalabrutinib","ibrutinib","soquelitinib"],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":["Written by scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts from CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC and UniProt; the function text is UniProt's, condensed and in UK spelling. Roles: Open Targets known-drug datatype score 0.97. Evidence tier \"approved-drug\" is the strongest of those signals.","Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate."],"provenance":{"editedBy":"scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts (CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC, UniProt)","editedOn":"2026-09-23"},"symbol":"ITK","role":["drug-target"],"evidenceTier":"approved-drug","sources":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:6171","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:6171","note":"approved symbol, name, aliases, locus and cross-references (hgnc_complete_set.txt)"},{"label":"UniProt Q08881","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q08881/entry","note":"protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000113263","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000113263/associations","note":"association with cancer (MONDO_0004992) 0.68; per-cancer scores at or above 0.5: renal cell carcinoma 0.63, sarcoma 0.62 (GraphQL API, CC0)"}],"specificity":"lineage-antigen","distribution":"few-types","specificityNote":"Lineage antigen shared with normal NK-cells and T-cells and lymphoid tissue cells: HPA finds the gene tissue enriched in lymphoid tissue, and the 3 medicines aimed at it (Acalabrutinib, Ibrutinib, Soquelitinib) act on the wild-type protein, so the normal lineage is hit too. HPA ITK: RNA tissue enriched (lymphoid tissue 54 nTPM); blood lineage group enriched (NK-cells 29 nTPM, T-cells 78 nTPM); no normal tissue stained high. Distribution: 2 cancer families in the corpus carry a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Renal cell carcinoma, Sarcomas (soft tissue, bone, GIST)); approvals of single-target medicines aimed at it also list Leukaemia, Lymphoma, not counted; Open Targets associates it with 1 specific cancer type at or above 0.5 (renal cell carcinoma). (Rule 7 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"Human Protein Atlas ITK tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000113263-ITK/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Human Protein Atlas ITK pathology","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000113263-ITK/pathology","note":"patients per staining level per cancer type (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000113263 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000113263/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:6171","ensembl":"ENSG00000113263","uniprot":"Q08881","entrez":"3702","firstDescribed":1993,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Tanaka et al, FEBS Lett, 1993, \"A novel human tyrosine kinase gene inducible in T cells by interleukin 2\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8504851/","biology":"Tyrosine kinase that plays an essential role in regulation of the adaptive immune response. Regulates the development, function and differentiation of conventional T-cells and nonconventional NKT-cells. When antigen presenting cells (APC) activate T-cell receptor (TCR), a series of phosphorylation lead to the recruitment of ITK to the cell membrane, in the vicinity of the stimulated TCR receptor, where it is phosphorylated by LCK. Phosphorylation leads to ITK autophosphorylation and full activation. Once activated, phosphorylates PLCG1, leading to the activation of this lipase and subsequent cleavage of its substrates. In turn, the endoplasmic reticulum releases calcium in the cytoplasm and the nuclear activator of activated T-cells (NFAT) translocates into the nucleus to perform its transcriptional duty. Location: Cytoplasm; Nucleus (UniProt). Locus 5q33.3 (HGNC).","whereFound":["Renal cell carcinoma: Open Targets association 0.63 with renal cell carcinoma (MONDO_0005086)","Sarcomas: Open Targets association 0.62 with sarcoma (MONDO_0005089)"],"targetClass":"kinase","prevalence":[]},"route":"/targets/itk/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"open-targets","kind":"collection","name":"Open Targets Platform","route":"/collections/open-targets/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"rcc","kind":"cancer","name":"Renal cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/rcc/"},{"id":"sarcoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Sarcomas (soft tissue, bone, GIST)","route":"/cancers/sarcoma/"}],"drug":[{"id":"acalabrutinib","kind":"drug","name":"Acalabrutinib","route":"/drugs/acalabrutinib/"},{"id":"ibrutinib","kind":"drug","name":"Ibrutinib","route":"/drugs/ibrutinib/"},{"id":"soquelitinib","kind":"drug","name":"Soquelitinib","route":"/drugs/soquelitinib/"}]}}