Protein / target
Hepatocyte growth factor receptor
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Hepatocyte growth factor receptor activity
Primary system
Musculoskeletal system
Strongest disease association
papillary renal cell carcinoma
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
8 approved · 30 in clinical development
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function
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.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Kinase signalling
- ·Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the…
- ·protein tyrosine kinase activity
Synaptic signalling
- ·postsynapse
- ·excitatory postsynaptic potential
Excitatory neurotransmission
- ·excitatory postsynaptic potential
Immune signalling
- ·InlB-mediated entry of Listeria monocytogenes into host cell
Cell adhesion
- ·Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the…
Transcriptional regulation
- ·positive regulation of transcription by RNA polymerase II
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.
Drugs targeting this protein
Whether each drug engages this protein directly or through a complex, and how many other targets are recorded for it. Direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.
Hepatocyte growth factor receptor inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving non-small cell lung carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, neoplasm
Hepatocyte growth factor receptor inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving non-small cell lung carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, neoplasm, non-small cell lung carcinoma
Hepatocyte growth factor receptor inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving non-small cell lung carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, neoplasm
Hepatocyte growth factor receptor binding agent
Appears in clinical studies involving non-small cell lung carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, squamous cell lung carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma
ChEMBL mechanism, action type and target identity. Open Targets clinical status and indications.
Translational evidence
Why this target matters therapeutically — disease associations, drugs in development, tractability and safety, from Open Targets.
Strongest genetic associations
Human genetic evidence — the most direct causal link between this target and a disease.
Highest-confidence therapeutic associations
Diseases where a drug acting on this target has already reached clinical development.
Highest overall evidence
Remaining associations by Open Targets' aggregated evidence score.
Show all associationsHide all associations
Open Targets ranks 2,315 associations for this target and we store the top 10 by aggregated score. The long tail is largely literature co-mention and RNA-expression evidence, not evidence that this target drives those diseases.
Known drugs · 38 total
cancer · cancer
breast cancer · gastric adenocarcinoma · renal cell carcinoma
neoplasm
renal cell carcinoma · papillary renal cell carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma
non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma · squamous cell lung carcinoma
biliary tract cancer · non-small cell lung carcinoma · rectum adenocarcinoma
non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma · neoplasm
non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma
neoplasm · non-small cell lung carcinoma
non-small cell lung carcinoma · gastric adenocarcinoma · gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma
Tractability
Safety liabilities
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.
Show remaining trials (24)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
Forefront confidence
Our own weighting of the evidence behind each disease association. Human genetics and clinical evidence count for most; literature co-mention counts for little, because two entities sharing an abstract is not evidence that one drives the other.
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 underlying per-type scores are shown above so the calculation can be checked.
What's happening now
Recent activity around this target, drawn from one canonical event stream. Every item is reached through 4 drugs that target this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.
- 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.