Protein / target
Hepatocyte growth factor receptor
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Hepatocyte growth factor receptor
Strongest disease association
Carcinoma, Renal Cell
Therapeutic position
Established drug target
Research activity
Emerging research
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the cytoplasm by binding to hepatocyte growth factor/HGF ligand.
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Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the cytoplasm by binding to hepatocyte growth factor/HGF ligand. Regulates many physiological processes including proliferation, scattering, morphogenesis and survival. Ligand binding at the cell surface induces autophosphorylation of MET on its intracellular domain that provides docking sites for downstream signaling molecules. Following activation by ligand, interacts with the PI3-kinase subunit PIK3R1, PLCG1, SRC, GRB2, STAT3 or the adapter GAB1. Recruitment of these downstream effectors by MET leads to the activation of several signaling cascades including the RAS-ERK, PI3 kinase-AKT, or PLCgamma-PKC. The RAS-ERK activation is associated with the morphogenetic effects while PI3K/AKT coordinates prosurvival effects. During embryonic development, MET signaling plays a role in gastrulation, development and migration of neuronal precursors, angiogenesis and kidney formation. During skeletal muscle development, it is crucial for the migration of muscle progenitor cells and for the proliferation of secondary myoblasts (By similarity). In adults, participates in wound healing as well as organ regeneration and tissue remodeling. Also promotes differentiation and proliferation of hematopoietic cells. May regulate cortical bone osteogenesis (By similarity)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (34)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Cbasal plasma membrane
- Ccell surface
- Cextracellular region
- Cmembrane
- Cplasma membrane
- Cpostsynapse
- Creceptor complex
- FATP binding
- Fhepatocyte growth factor receptor activity
- Fidentical protein binding
- Fmolecular function activator activity
- Fprotein phosphatase binding
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Receptor tyrosine kinase signalling
- ·Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the…
- ·cell surface receptor protein tyrosine kinase signaling pathway
Cell proliferation & survival
- ·PIP3 activates AKT signaling
- ·PI5P, PP2A and IER3 Regulate PI3K/AKT Signaling
- ·MET activates PI3K/AKT signaling
Cell migration
- ·positive chemotaxis
- ·positive regulation of endothelial cell chemotaxis
Excitatory neurotransmission
- ·excitatory postsynaptic potential
Growth-factor signalling
- ·hepatocyte growth factor receptor signaling pathway
Oncogenic signalling
- ·Constitutive Signaling by Aberrant PI3K in Cancer
View underlying pathways (19)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.
8 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 4 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.
Hepatocyte growth factor receptor inhibitor
Indicated for Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung, Neoplasms
Hepatocyte growth factor receptor inhibitor
Indicated for Neoplasms
Hepatocyte growth factor receptor inhibitor
Indicated for Neoplasms
Hepatocyte growth factor receptor inhibitor
Indicated for Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung, Neoplasms
Hepatocyte growth factor receptor binding agent
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 MET
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene METthat 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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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
38 compounds recorded · 8 approved · 30 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
Other modalities — Strong
View underlying tractability evidence (16)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 4 drugs that target 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 publicationAmivantamab plus Lazertinib in Previously Untreated <i>EGFR</i>-Mutated Advanced NSCLC.
- New publicationTelisotuzumab Vedotin Monotherapy in Patients With Previously Treated c-Met Protein-Overexpressing Advanced Nonsquamous <i>EGFR</i>-Wildtype Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in the Phase II LUMINOSITY Trial.
- New publicationLorlatinib Versus Crizotinib in Patients With Advanced <i>ALK</i>-Positive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: 5-Year Outcomes From the Phase III CROWN Study.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Tepmetko (EMA)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Rybrevant (EMA)
- New publicationBrigatinib Versus Crizotinib in ALK Inhibitor-Naive Advanced ALK-Positive NSCLC: Final Results of Phase 3 ALTA-1L Trial.
- New publicationAmivantamab in EGFR Exon 20 Insertion-Mutated Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Progressing on Platinum Chemotherapy: Initial Results From the CHRYSALIS Phase I Study.
- New publicationTepotinib in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer with <i>MET</i> Exon 14 Skipping Mutations.
- Safety communication
Drug Safety Update: Crizotinib (Xalkori▼): risk of cardiac failure
- New publicationFirst-line crizotinib versus chemotherapy in ALK-positive lung cancer.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Xalkori (EMA)
- New publicationROS1 rearrangements define a unique molecular class of lung cancers.
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.
Research activity
Papers linked directly to this protein. This is the protein's own literature — descriptor-derived papers are kept separate below.
Most cited
Recent
Europe PMC papers linked directly to this protein.