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MERTK (Tyrosine-protein kinase Mer) 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 a biomarker, and clinical evidence ties its variants to diagnosis, prognosis or drug response. Tied to Melanoma.
Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the cytoplasm by binding to several ligands including LGALS3, TUB, TULP1 or GAS6. Regulates many physiological processes including cell survival, migration, differentiation, and phagocytosis of apoptotic cells (efferocytosis). Ligand binding at the cell surface induces autophosphorylation of MERTK on its intracellular domain that provides docking sites for downstream signalling molecules.
CIViC holds 1 clinical evidence item and 0 assertions across 1 variant, naming UNC1062.
In plain words · MERTK (Tyrosine-protein kinase Mer) 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 a biomarker, and clinical evidence ties its variants to diagnosis, prognosis or drug response. Tied to Melanoma.
MERTK (Tyrosine-protein kinase Mer) 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 a biomarker, and clinical evidence ties its variants to diagnosis, prognosis or drug response. Tied to Melanoma.
Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the cytoplasm by binding to several ligands including LGALS3, TUB, TULP1 or GAS6.
No product in this corpus aims at MERTK yet. Kinases are switched on by binding ATP inside the cell, so most drugs are small molecules shaped to plug that ATP pocket.
Specificity not established: no corpus medicine is aimed at it and the catalogues give it only the roles drug-target, biomarker; HPA finds the RNA tissue enhanced, which says where the protein sits but not whether the tumour differs from normal tissue. HPA MERTK: RNA tissue enhanced (choroid plexus 90 nTPM); blood lineage lineage enriched (monocytes 9 nTPM); high antibody staining in 9 normal tissues; highest cancer staining renal cancer (9 of 12 high). Distribution: 1 cancer family in the corpus carries a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Skin cancer (all types)); Open Targets associates it with 0 specific cancer types at or above 0.5. (No rule of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts fired.)
Sources: Human Protein Atlas MERTK tissue; Open Targets ENSG00000153208 associations
First described 1994. Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Graham D.K. et al, Cell Growth Differ, 1994, "Cloning and mRNA expression analysis of a novel human protooncogene, c-mer". Source.
Sources: HGNC HGNC:7027 (approved symbol, name, aliases, locus and cross-references (hgnc_complete_set.txt)); UniProt Q12866 (protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)); CIViC gene MERTK (1 evidence items, 0 assertions, 1 variants; diseases: Melanoma (GraphQL API, CC0))
Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the cytoplasm by binding to several ligands including LGALS3, TUB, TULP1 or GAS6. Regulates many physiological processes including cell survival, migration, differentiation, and phagocytosis of apoptotic cells (efferocytosis). Ligand binding at the cell surface induces autophosphorylation of MERTK on its intracellular domain that provides docking sites for downstream signalling molecules. Following activation by ligand, interacts with GRB2 or PLCG2 and induces phosphorylation of MAPK1, MAPK2, FAK/PTK2 or RAC1. MERTK signalling plays a role in various processes such as macrophage clearance of apoptotic cells, platelet aggregation, cytoskeleton reorganisation and engulfment. Functions in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) as a regulator of rod outer segments fragments phagocytosis. Location: Cell membrane (UniProt). Locus 2q13 (HGNC).
RNA: tissue enhanced (choroid plexus 90 nTPM), detected in all normal tissues. Blood: lineage enriched (monocytes 9 nTPM).
Medium: Appendix, Bronchus, Cerebellum, Fallopian tube, Gallbladder, Heart muscle, Kidney, Liver.
Medium only: breast cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer, stomach cancer.
Human Protein Atlas version 25.1, antibody staining at reliability approved, enhanced or supported; used under CC BY-SA 3.0. Staining counts are patients per level in the atlas cohort, not population prevalence.
Query for this target: (TITLE:"MERTK" OR ABSTRACT:"MERTK" OR TITLE:"MER proto-oncogene, tyrosine kinase" OR ABSTRACT:"MER proto-oncogene, tyrosine kinase" OR TITLE:"Tyrosine-protein kinase Mer" OR ABSTRACT:"Tyrosine-protein kinase Mer" OR TITLE:"mer" OR ABSTRACT:"mer" OR TITLE:"RP38" OR ABSTRACT:"RP38" OR TITLE:"c-Eyk" OR ABSTRACT:"c-Eyk") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about MERTK, not a curated reading list.