Protein / target

NT-3 growth factor receptor

NTRK3Q16288Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Clinically validated
Therapeutic maturity
6
Approved medicines
22
Clinical trials
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Approved Drug

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity

Primary system

Nervous system

Strongest disease association

ovarian neoplasm

Genetic evidence · score 0.60

Therapeutic maturity

Clinically validated target

6 approved medicines against this target

Druggability

Small molecule

Open Targets tractability · Approved Drug

Clinical development

6 approved · 7 in clinical development

22 linked trials

Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.

Protein profile

UniProt 2026_02

Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.

Function

Receptor tyrosine kinase involved in nervous system and probably heart development. Upon binding of its ligand NTF3/neurotrophin-3, NTRK3 autophosphorylates and activates different signaling pathways, including the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT and the MAPK pathways, that control cell survival and differentiation

Subcellular location

Membrane
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (39)

Domains & features

LRRCTIg-like C2-type 1Ig-like C2-type 2Protein kinase

Gene Ontology

  • Caxon
  • Ccytoplasm
  • Cglutamatergic synapse
  • Cnucleolus
  • Cplasma membrane
  • Cpostsynaptic membrane
  • Creceptor complex
  • FATP binding
  • FGPI-linked ephrin receptor activity
  • Fneurotrophin binding
  • Fneurotrophin receptor activity
  • Fp53 binding

839 aa · 94 kDa · 5 isoforms

Biological roles

Reactome v97

What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.

Synaptic signallingGOKinase signallingGOExcitatory neurotransmissionGOTranscriptional regulationGO
View supporting evidence

Synaptic signalling

  • ·glutamatergic synapse
  • ·postsynaptic membrane
  • ·postsynaptic density assembly
  • ·regulation of presynapse assembly

Kinase signalling

  • ·transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity
  • ·positive regulation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B signal transduction

Excitatory neurotransmission

  • ·glutamatergic synapse

Transcriptional regulation

  • ·positive regulation of gene expression
View underlying pathways (10)

Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.

Interaction neighbourhood

STRING v12.0

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.

NTF4BDNFPTPRSNTF3NGFSHC1GDNFETV6NTRK2NGFRNTRK3

10 strongest partners — larger node and heavier line mean higher confidence

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

2

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.

repotrectinib
ApprovedInhibitor

NT-3 growth factor receptor inhibitor

Appears in clinical studies involving non-small cell lung carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, cancer

Direct interaction with this protein · 1 of 6 recorded protein targets

larotrectinib
ApprovedInhibitor

Neurotrophic tyrosine kinase receptor inhibitor

Appears in clinical studies involving neoplasm, cancer, plasma cell myeloma, lymphoma

Acts on a complex — shared with NTRK1, NTRK2 · 1 of 3 recorded protein targets — narrow recorded profile

ChEMBL mechanism, action type and target identity. Open Targets clinical status and indications.

Translational evidence

Open Targets 26

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.

ovarian neoplasm0.60

Genetic · overall 0.41

neoplasm0.24

Genetic · overall 0.64

Highest-confidence therapeutic associations

Diseases where a drug acting on this target has already reached clinical development.

non-small cell lung carcinoma0.95

Clinical · overall 0.65

cancer0.87

Clinical · overall 0.65

keratitis0.76

Clinical · overall 0.46

thyroid gland papillary carcinoma0.16

Clinical · overall 0.40

congenital fibrosarcoma0.15

Clinical · overall 0.40

Highest overall evidence

Remaining associations by Open Targets' aggregated evidence score.

neurodegenerative disease0.48

Pathway

pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma0.38

Somatic mutation

congenital mesoblastic nephroma0.38

Somatic mutation

Show all associations
cancer0.65
non-small cell lung carcinoma0.65
neoplasm0.64
neurodegenerative disease0.48
keratitis0.46
ovarian neoplasm0.41
thyroid gland papillary carcinoma0.40
congenital fibrosarcoma0.40
pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma0.38
congenital mesoblastic nephroma0.38

Open Targets ranks 2,978 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 · 13 total

ENTRECTINIBApproval

non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma · neoplasm

TALETRECTINIBPhase 3

non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma · neoplasm

PLX-7486Phase 1

malignant pancreatic neoplasm

LAROTRECTINIBApproval

neoplasm · cancer · plasma cell myeloma

LAROTRECTINIB SULFATEApproval

metastasis · cancer · neoplasm

REPOTRECTINIBApproval

non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma

SELITRECTINIBPhase 1

cancer · pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma · hematopoietic and lymphoid system neoplasm

CEP-2563Phase 1
AZD-6918Phase 1
ALTIRATINIBPhase 1

Tractability

SM · Approved DrugSM · Structure with LigandSM · High-Quality LigandSM · Druggable FamilyAB · GO CC high confAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMMPR · LiteraturePR · Half-life DataPR · Small Molecule BinderOC · Approved Drug

Clinical trials

22

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 (16)

ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.

Forefront confidence

Synthesis

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.

neoplasmWell supported
0.85
agreement 0.760.94
Clinical50%Somatic mutation22%Genetic18%Literature10%

Open Targets aggregate 0.64 · 4 independent evidence families

non-small cell lung carcinomaWell supported
0.81
agreement 0.690.93
Clinical67%Somatic mutation28%Literature5%

Open Targets aggregate 0.65 · 3 independent evidence families

cancerWell supported
0.78
agreement 0.650.90
Clinical63%Pathway28%Literature9%

Open Targets aggregate 0.65 · 3 independent evidence families

ovarian neoplasmModerately supported
0.68
agreement 0.570.78
Genetic75%Somatic mutation25%

Open Targets aggregate 0.41 · 2 independent evidence families

keratitisModerately supported
0.57
agreement 0.410.73
Clinical100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.46 · 1 independent evidence family

This ranking differs from Open Targets' own: re-weighting moves genetically-evidenced diseases above more heavily co-mentioned ones. 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

3

Recent activity around this target, drawn from one canonical event stream. Every item is reached through 2 drugs that target this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.

  1. Regulatory approval2025-01-13

    Approval: Augtyro (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via repotrectinib

  2. New publication2024-01-01
    Repotrectinib in <i>ROS1</i> Fusion-Positive Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.

    The New England journal of medicine · 2024 · 168 citations · Europe PMC · via repotrectinib

  3. New publication2018-02-01
    Efficacy of Larotrectinib in TRK Fusion-Positive Cancers in Adults and Children.

    The New England journal of medicine · 2018 · 1,987 citations · Europe PMC · via larotrectinib

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.