Protein / target
Insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Insulin-like growth factor receptor
Strongest disease association
Genetic Diseases, Inborn
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
Receptor tyrosine kinase which mediates actions of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1).
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Receptor tyrosine kinase which mediates actions of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1). Binds IGF1 with high affinity and IGF2 and insulin (INS) with a lower affinity. The activated IGF1R is involved in cell growth and survival control. IGF1R is crucial for tumor transformation and survival of malignant cell. Ligand binding activates the receptor kinase, leading to receptor autophosphorylation, and tyrosines phosphorylation of multiple substrates, that function as signaling adapter proteins including, the insulin-receptor substrates (IRS1/2), Shc and 14-3-3 proteins. Phosphorylation of IRSs proteins lead to the activation of two main signaling pathways: the PI3K-AKT/PKB pathway and the Ras-MAPK pathway. The result of activating the MAPK pathway is increased cellular proliferation, whereas activating the PI3K pathway inhibits apoptosis and stimulates protein synthesis. Phosphorylated IRS1 can activate the 85 kDa regulatory subunit of PI3K (PIK3R1), leading to activation of several downstream substrates, including protein AKT/PKB. AKT phosphorylation, in turn, enhances protein synthesis through mTOR activation and triggers the antiapoptotic effects of IGFIR through phosphorylation and inactivation of BAD. In parallel to PI3K-driven signaling, recruitment of Grb2/SOS by phosphorylated IRS1 or Shc leads to recruitment of Ras and activation of the ras-MAPK pathway. In addition to these two main signaling pathways IGF1R signals also through the Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription pathway (JAK/STAT). Phosphorylation of JAK proteins can lead to phosphorylation/activation of signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) proteins. In particular activation of STAT3, may be essential for the transforming activity of IGF1R. The JAK/STAT pathway activates gene transcription and may be responsible for the transforming activity. JNK kinases can also be activated by the IGF1R. IGF1 exerts inhibiting activities on JNK activation via phosphorylation and inhibition of MAP3K5/ASK1, which is able to directly associate with the IGF1R
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (45)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Calphav-beta3 integrin-IGF-1-IGF1R complex
- Caxon
- Cinsulin receptor complex
- Cmembrane
- Cplasma membrane
- Cprotein kinase complex
- Creceptor complex
- FATP binding
- Fidentical protein binding
- Finsulin binding
- Finsulin receptor activity
- Finsulin receptor binding
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Growth-factor signalling
- ·Receptor tyrosine kinase which mediates actions of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1).…
- ·insulin-like growth factor binding
- ·insulin-like growth factor I binding
- ·insulin-like growth factor receptor activity
Receptor tyrosine kinase signalling
- ·Receptor tyrosine kinase which mediates actions of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1).…
Cell proliferation & survival
- ·positive regulation of cell population proliferation
Cell migration
- ·positive regulation of cell migration
Immune signalling
- ·Receptor tyrosine kinase which mediates actions of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1).…
- ·immune response
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
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.
3 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 1 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.
Insulin-like growth factor I receptor agonist
Indicated for Hypothyroidism, Laron Syndrome
Insulin-like growth factor I receptor antagonist
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 IGF1R
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene IGF1R that 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
20 compounds recorded · 3 approved · 16 in clinical development · 1 earlier-stage
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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 (15)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.
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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.
- Safety communication
Drug Safety Update: Mecasermin (Increlex▼): risk of benign and malignant neoplasia
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Increlex (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.