Protein / target
High affinity nerve growth factor receptor
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase
Strongest disease association
Hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type 4
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 involved in the development and the maturation of the central and peripheral nervous systems through regulation of proliferation, differentiation and survival of sympathetic and nervous neurons.
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Receptor tyrosine kinase involved in the development and the maturation of the central and peripheral nervous systems through regulation of proliferation, differentiation and survival of sympathetic and nervous neurons. High affinity receptor for NGF which is its primary ligand (PubMed:1281417, PubMed:15488758, PubMed:17196528, PubMed:1849459, PubMed:1850821, PubMed:22649032, PubMed:27445338, PubMed:8325889). Can also bind and be activated by NTF3/neurotrophin-3. However, NTF3 only supports axonal extension through NTRK1 but has no effect on neuron survival (By similarity). Upon dimeric NGF ligand-binding, undergoes homodimerization, autophosphorylation and activation (PubMed:1281417). Recruits, phosphorylates and/or activates several downstream effectors including SHC1, FRS2, SH2B1, SH2B2 and PLCG1 that regulate distinct overlapping signaling cascades driving cell survival and differentiation. Through SHC1 and FRS2 activates a GRB2-Ras-MAPK cascade that regulates cell differentiation and survival. Through PLCG1 controls NF-Kappa-B activation and the transcription of genes involved in cell survival. Through SHC1 and SH2B1 controls a Ras-PI3 kinase-AKT1 signaling cascade that is also regulating survival. In absence of ligand and activation, may promote cell death, making the survival of neurons dependent on trophic factors
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (68)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Caxon
- Ccell surface
- Cdendrite
- Cearly endosome
- Cearly endosome membrane
- Cendosome membrane
- Clate endosome
- Clate endosome membrane
- Cmitochondrion
- Cneuronal cell body
- Cplasma membrane
- Cprotein-containing complex
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 involved in the development and the maturation of the central a…
- ·transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity
- ·cell surface receptor protein tyrosine kinase signaling pathway
Cell proliferation & survival
- ·Receptor tyrosine kinase involved in the development and the maturation of the central a…
- ·negative regulation of cell population proliferation
Excitatory neurotransmission
- ·positive regulation of synaptic transmission, glutamatergic
Apoptosis & cell death
- ·negative regulation of apoptotic process
- ·negative regulation of neuron apoptotic process
- ·positive regulation of programmed cell death
- ·programmed cell death involved in cell development
View underlying pathways (10)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 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.
Nerve growth factor receptor Trk-A inhibitor
Indicated for Colorectal Neoplasms, Neoplasms
Neurotrophic tyrosine kinase receptor inhibitor
Indicated for Neoplasms
Neurotrophic tyrosine kinase receptor inhibitor
Indicated for Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung, 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 NTRK1
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene NTRK1that 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
17 compounds recorded · 7 approved · 10 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 — Emerging
Other modalities — Strong
View underlying tractability evidence (12)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: Augtyro (EMA)
- New publicationLenvatinib Plus Pembrolizumab Versus Standard of Care for Previously Treated Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Final Analysis of the Randomized, Open-Label, Phase III LEAP-017 Study.
- New publicationRepotrectinib in <i>ROS1</i> Fusion-Positive Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.
- New publicationTargeted therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Rozlytrek (EMA)
- New publicationMolecular targeted and immune checkpoint therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
- New publicationRandomized Double-Blind Phase II Study of Regorafenib in Patients With Metastatic Osteosarcoma.
- New publicationEfficacy of Larotrectinib in TRK Fusion-Positive Cancers in Adults and Children.
- New publicationRegorafenib for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who progressed on sorafenib treatment (RESORCE): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Stivarga (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.