Protein / target
Macrophage colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor
Strongest disease association
Leukoencephalopathy, diffuse hereditary, with spheroids 1
Therapeutic position
Established drug target
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Tyrosine-protein kinase that acts as a cell-surface receptor for CSF1 and IL34 and plays an essential role in the regulation of survival, proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic precursor cells, especially mononuclear phagocytes, such as macrophages and monocytes.
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Tyrosine-protein kinase that acts as a cell-surface receptor for CSF1 and IL34 and plays an essential role in the regulation of survival, proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic precursor cells, especially mononuclear phagocytes, such as macrophages and monocytes. Promotes the release of pro-inflammatory chemokines in response to IL34 and CSF1, and thereby plays an important role in innate immunity and in inflammatory processes. Plays an important role in the regulation of osteoclast proliferation and differentiation, the regulation of bone resorption, and is required for normal bone and tooth development. Required for normal male and female fertility, and for normal development of milk ducts and acinar structures in the mammary gland during pregnancy. Promotes reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton, regulates formation of membrane ruffles, cell adhesion and cell migration, and promotes cancer cell invasion. Activates several signaling pathways in response to ligand binding, including the ERK1/2 and the JNK pathway (PubMed:20504948, PubMed:30982609). Phosphorylates PIK3R1, PLCG2, GRB2, SLA2 and CBL. Activation of PLCG2 leads to the production of the cellular signaling molecules diacylglycerol and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate, that then lead to the activation of protein kinase C family members, especially PRKCD. Phosphorylation of PIK3R1, the regulatory subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, leads to activation of the AKT1 signaling pathway. Activated CSF1R also mediates activation of the MAP kinases MAPK1/ERK2 and/or MAPK3/ERK1, and of the SRC family kinases SRC, FYN and YES1. Activated CSF1R transmits signals both via proteins that directly interact with phosphorylated tyrosine residues in its intracellular domain, or via adapter proteins, such as GRB2. Promotes activation of STAT family members STAT3, STAT5A and/or STAT5B. Promotes tyrosine phosphorylation of SHC1 and INPP5D/SHIP-1. Receptor signaling is down-regulated by protein phosphatases, such as INPP5D/SHIP-1, that dephosphorylate the receptor and its downstream effectors, and by rapid internalization of the activated receptor. In the central nervous system, may play a role in the development of microglia macrophages (PubMed:30982608)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (60)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Ccell surface
- CCSF1-CSF1R complex
- Cplasma membrane
- Creceptor complex
- FATP binding
- Fcytokine binding
- Fgrowth factor binding
- Fmacrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor activity
- Fprotein homodimerization activity
- Fprotein phosphatase binding
- Fprotein tyrosine kinase activity
- Paxon guidance
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Cell migration
- ·Tyrosine-protein kinase that acts as a cell-surface receptor for CSF1 and IL34 and plays…
- ·cell migration
- ·positive regulation of cell migration
- ·positive regulation of cell motility
Cell proliferation & survival
- ·cell population proliferation
- ·negative regulation of cell population proliferation
- ·positive regulation of cell population proliferation
Receptor tyrosine kinase signalling
- ·cell surface receptor protein tyrosine kinase signaling pathway
Immune signalling
- ·cytokine binding
- ·cellular response to cytokine stimulus
- ·cytokine-mediated signaling pathway
- ·inflammatory response
Cell adhesion
- ·Tyrosine-protein kinase that acts as a cell-surface receptor for CSF1 and IL34 and plays…
- ·cell-cell junction maintenance
View underlying pathways (3)Hide underlying pathways
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Interaction neighbourhood
Proteins with the strongest functional or physical association. Node size and line weight reflect STRING confidence; hover or select a partner to inspect one association.
Functional and physical associations from STRING v12.0. Only associations with this protein are drawn — partner-to-partner links are not part of this evidence.
Approved medicines with mapped indications
Approved therapies targeting this protein, grouped by what they are approved to treat — the disease-first view of the medicines below. Relationships come from the canonical approved-indication graph (ChEMBL phase-4), the same source as the drug cards.
7 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 2 shown here are those on this page with a canonical approved disease indication in the graph. Approved indications from ChEMBL (phase-4), via the canonical drug→disease graph.
Drugs targeting this protein
How approved and investigational drugs engage this protein — mechanism and action type, direct vs complex targeting, and how broadly each acts across other targets. A drug-first view (the section above groups the approved ones disease-first); direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.
Macrophage colony stimulating factor receptor inhibitor
Indicated for Neoplasms
Macrophage colony stimulating factor receptor inhibitor
Indicated for Carcinoma, Renal Cell, Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors, Neuroendocrine Tumors, Neoplasms
ChEMBL mechanism, action type, target identity and approved indications. Open Targets clinical status.
Translational evidence
Why this target matters therapeutically, strongest evidence first. Disease associations are gene-level (via the gene that encodes this protein) and open into the full confidence synthesis; the development universe, tractability and safety annotations are target-level, from Open Targets.
Strongest disease associations · via encoding gene CSF1R
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene CSF1Rthat encodes this protein — not a direct protein–disease relationship. Ranked by Forefront's causal-directness weighting, so genetically- and clinically-evidenced diseases lead over ones that merely share the literature.
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This ranking differs from Open Targets' own: re-weighting moves genetically-evidenced diseases above more heavily co-mentioned ones. The evidence agreement range shows how closely the independent evidence families agree — it is not a statistical confidence interval, and nothing here is fitted to outcome data. Derived from Open Targets evidence types under Forefront weighting; the per-type scores above show the calculation.
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Drug development
21 compounds recorded · 7 approved · 14 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (10)Hide
Open Targets known-drugs universe. Drug name and highest clinical stage only — the disease relationship is NOT read from this slice (it carries trial-context noise); approved indications come from the canonical graph above.
Tractability
Small molecules — Strong
Antibodies — Strong
Protein degraders — Emerging
View underlying tractability evidence (13)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
Safety-related annotations
Terms indexed against this target in Open Targets' safety data, with their datasource. These are annotations, not causal claims: the direction of effect (whether activation or inhibition is implicated), species and evidence strength are not captured here, so an entry does not mean that modulating this target is known to cause that condition.
Clinical trials
Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein. Ranked by active status, then clinical phase and recency, and spread across the targeting drugs.
View all trials (26)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
What's happening now
Recent therapeutic activity around this target — regulatory actions, clinical trials and safety signals for a drug that targets this protein, plus publications where such a drug is a genuine subject. Every item is reached indirectly through the drug, not the protein itself; incidental mentions (a paper that merely measures a drug) and press items are excluded.
- New publicationMachine-learning and mechanistic modeling of metastatic breast cancer after neoadjuvant treatment.
- New publicationGenomic profiling in GIST: Implications in clinical outcome and future challenges.
- New publicationNivolumab plus Cabozantinib versus Sunitinib for Advanced Renal-Cell Carcinoma.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Sunitinib Accord (EMA)
- New publicationNivolumab plus ipilimumab versus sunitinib in first-line treatment for advanced renal cell carcinoma: extended follow-up of efficacy and safety results from a randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial.
- New publicationPembrolizumab plus Axitinib versus Sunitinib for Advanced Renal-Cell Carcinoma.
- New publicationNivolumab plus Ipilimumab versus Sunitinib in Advanced Renal-Cell Carcinoma.
- New publicationPazopanib versus sunitinib in metastatic renal-cell carcinoma.
- New publicationMulticenter phase II trial of sunitinib in the treatment of nongastrointestinal stromal tumor sarcomas.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Sutent (EMA)
- New publicationActivity of SU11248, a multitargeted inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor and platelet-derived growth factor receptor, in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.
- New publicationSafety, pharmacokinetic, and antitumor activity of SU11248, a novel oral multitarget tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in patients with cancer.
Objective event titles are shown unmodified; the event kind and significance line are derived from structured fields. Forefront AttentionEvent stream aggregating Europe PMC Regulatory filings ClinicalTrials.gov.