Protein / target
Tyrosine-protein kinase BTK
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Non-membrane spanning protein tyrosine kinase
Strongest disease association
X-linked agammaglobulinemia
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
Non-receptor tyrosine kinase indispensable for B lymphocyte development, differentiation and signaling.
View complete UniProt function annotationHide complete annotation
Non-receptor tyrosine kinase indispensable for B lymphocyte development, differentiation and signaling (PubMed:19290921). Binding of antigen to the B-cell antigen receptor (BCR) triggers signaling that ultimately leads to B-cell activation (PubMed:19290921). After BCR engagement and activation at the plasma membrane, phosphorylates PLCG2 at several sites, igniting the downstream signaling pathway through calcium mobilization, followed by activation of the protein kinase C (PKC) family members (PubMed:11606584). PLCG2 phosphorylation is performed in close cooperation with the adapter protein B-cell linker protein BLNK (PubMed:11606584). BTK acts as a platform to bring together a diverse array of signaling proteins and is implicated in cytokine receptor signaling pathways (PubMed:16517732, PubMed:17932028). Plays an important role in the function of immune cells of innate as well as adaptive immunity, as a component of the Toll-like receptors (TLR) pathway (PubMed:16517732). The TLR pathway acts as a primary surveillance system for the detection of pathogens and are crucial to the activation of host defense (PubMed:16517732). Especially, is a critical molecule in regulating TLR9 activation in splenic B-cells (PubMed:16517732, PubMed:17932028). Within the TLR pathway, induces tyrosine phosphorylation of TIRAP which leads to TIRAP degradation (PubMed:16415872). BTK also plays a critical role in transcription regulation (PubMed:19290921). Induces the activity of NF-kappa-B, which is involved in regulating the expression of hundreds of genes (PubMed:19290921). BTK is involved on the signaling pathway linking TLR8 and TLR9 to NF-kappa-B (PubMed:19290921). Acts as an activator of NLRP3 inflammasome assembly by mediating phosphorylation of NLRP3 (PubMed:34554188). Transiently phosphorylates transcription factor GTF2I on tyrosine residues in response to BCR (PubMed:9012831). GTF2I then translocates to the nucleus to bind regulatory enhancer elements to modulate gene expression (PubMed:9012831). ARID3A and NFAT are other transcriptional target of BTK (PubMed:16738337). BTK is required for the formation of functional ARID3A DNA-binding complexes (PubMed:16738337). There is however no evidence that BTK itself binds directly to DNA (PubMed:16738337). BTK has a dual role in the regulation of apoptosis (PubMed:9751072). Plays a role in STING1-mediated induction of type I interferon (IFN) response by phosphorylating DDX41 (PubMed:25704810)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (58)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Ccytoplasm
- Ccytoplasmic vesicle
- Ccytosol
- Cmembrane raft
- Cnucleus
- Cperinuclear region of cytoplasm
- Cplasma membrane
- FATP binding
- Fidentical protein binding
- Fnon-membrane spanning protein tyrosine kinase activity
- Fphosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate binding
- Fphospholipase activator activity
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Receptor tyrosine kinase signalling
- ·Non-receptor tyrosine kinase indispensable for B lymphocyte development, differentiation…
Immune signalling
- ·Non-receptor tyrosine kinase indispensable for B lymphocyte development, differentiation…
- ·adaptive immune response
- ·B cell activation
- ·B cell receptor signaling pathway
Transcriptional regulation
- ·Non-receptor tyrosine kinase indispensable for B lymphocyte development, differentiation…
- ·DNA-templated transcription
View underlying pathways (14)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.
Broader indication categories (1)Hide
Broad umbrella indications (e.g. “Neoplasms”). Shown here because every medicine also appears under a more specific disease above — kept for completeness, de-emphasised for clarity.
11 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 3 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.
Tyrosine-protein kinase BTK inhibitor
Indicated for Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell, Lymphoma, Mantle-Cell, Neoplasms
Tyrosine-protein kinase BTK inhibitor
Tyrosine-protein kinase BTK inhibitor
Indicated for Lymphoma, Mantle-Cell, Neoplasms
Tyrosine-protein kinase BTK inhibitor
Indicated for Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell, Lymphoma, Mantle-Cell, Neoplasms
Tyrosine-protein kinase BTK inhibitor
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 BTK
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene BTKthat 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.
View evidence synthesis (5)Hide
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
24 compounds recorded · 11 approved · 13 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 — Emerging
Protein degraders — Supported
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 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.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Wayrilz (EMA)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Brukinsa (EMA)
- New publicationZanubrutinib for the treatment of relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Calquence (EMA)
- New publicationTreatment of Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Mantle-Cell Lymphoma with Zanubrutinib, a Selective Inhibitor of Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase.
- New publicationTreatment of relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma with the BTK inhibitor zanubrutinib: phase 2, single-arm, multicenter study.
- New publicationIbrutinib-Rituximab or Chemoimmunotherapy for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.
- New publicationA head-to-head Phase III study comparing zanubrutinib versus ibrutinib in patients with Waldenström macroglobulinemia.
- Safety communication
Drug Safety Update: Ibrutinib (Imbruvica▼): reports of ventricular tachyarrhythmia; risk of hepatitis B reactivation and of opportunistic infections
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Imbruvica (EMA)
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.