Protein / target
Proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase receptor Ret
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity
Primary system
Nervous system
Strongest disease association
multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
12 approved · 4 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-protein kinase involved in numerous cellular mechanisms including cell proliferation, neuronal navigation, cell migration, and cell differentiation in response to glia cell line-derived growth family factors (GDNF, NRTN, ARTN, PSPN and GDF15) (PubMed:20064382, PubMed:20616503, PubMed:20702524, PubMed:21357690, PubMed:21454698, PubMed:24560924, PubMed:28846097, PubMed:28846099, PubMed:28953886, PubMed:31118272). In contrast to most receptor tyrosine kinases, RET requires not only its cognate ligands but also coreceptors, for activation (PubMed:21994944, PubMed:23333276, PubMed:28846097, PubMed:28846099, PubMed:28953886). GDNF ligands (GDNF, NRTN, ARTN, PSPN and GDF15) first bind their corresponding GDNFR coreceptors (GFRA1, GFRA2, GFRA3, GFRA4 and GFRAL, respectively), triggering RET autophosphorylation and activation, leading to activation of downstream signaling pathways, including the MAPK- and AKT-signaling pathways (PubMed:21994944, PubMed:23333276, PubMed:24560924, PubMed:25242331, PubMed:28846097, PubMed:28846099, PubMed:28953886). Acts as a dependence receptor via the GDNF-GFRA1 signaling: in the presence of the ligand GDNF in somatotrophs within pituitary, promotes survival and down regulates growth hormone (GH) production, but triggers apoptosis in absence of GDNF (PubMed:20616503, PubMed:21994944). Required for the molecular mechanisms orchestration during intestine organogenesis via the ARTN-GFRA3 signaling: involved in the development of enteric nervous system and renal organogenesis during embryonic life, and promotes the formation of Peyer's patch-like structures, a major component of the gut-associated lymphoid tissue (By similarity). Mediates, through interaction with GDF15-receptor GFRAL, GDF15-induced cell-signaling in the brainstem which triggers an aversive response, characterized by nausea, vomiting, and/or loss of appetite in response to various stresses (PubMed:28846097, PubMed:28846099, PubMed:28953886). Modulates cell adhesion via its cleavage by caspase in sympathetic neurons and mediates cell migration in an integrin (e.g. ITGB1 and ITGB3)-dependent manner (PubMed:20702524, PubMed:21357690). Also active in the absence of ligand, triggering apoptosis through a mechanism that requires receptor intracellular caspase cleavage (PubMed:21357690). Triggers the differentiation of rapidly adapting (RA) mechanoreceptors (PubMed:20064382). Involved in the development of the neural crest (By similarity). Regulates nociceptor survival and size (By similarity). Phosphorylates PTK2/FAK1 (PubMed:21454698)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (34)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Caxon
- Cendosome membrane
- Cplasma membrane
- Cplasma membrane protein complex
- Creceptor complex
- FATP binding
- Fcalcium ion binding
- Fprotein tyrosine kinase activity
- Fsignaling receptor activity
- Ftransmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity
- Paxon guidance
- Pcell surface receptor protein tyrosine kinase signaling pathway
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-protein kinase involved in numerous cellular mechanisms including cell…
- ·protein tyrosine kinase activity
- ·transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity
- ·positive regulation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B signal transduction
Cell adhesion
- ·Receptor tyrosine-protein kinase involved in numerous cellular mechanisms including cell…
- ·homophilic cell-cell adhesion
- ·neuron cell-cell adhesion
- ·positive regulation of cell adhesion mediated by integrin
Proteolysis
- ·membrane protein proteolysis
Transcriptional regulation
- ·positive regulation of DNA-templated transcription
Apoptosis & cell death
- ·Receptor tyrosine-protein kinase involved in numerous cellular mechanisms including cell…
View underlying pathways (5)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.
Tyrosine-protein kinase receptor RET inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving medullary thyroid gland carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, neoplasm
Tyrosine-protein kinase receptor RET inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving gastrointestinal stromal tumor, renal cell carcinoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, neuroendocrine neoplasm
Tyrosine-protein kinase receptor RET inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving colorectal cancer, metastatic colorectal cancer, colorectal neoplasm, neoplasm
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 1,945 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 · 16 total
medullary thyroid gland carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma · thyroid cancer
non-small cell lung carcinoma · lung cancer · non-small cell lung carcinoma
renal cell carcinoma · thyroid gland carcinoma · hepatocellular carcinoma
renal cell carcinoma · hepatocellular carcinoma · renal cell carcinoma
irritable bowel syndrome
acute myeloid leukemia by FAB classification · neoplasm · childhood leukemia
thyroid gland carcinoma · medullary thyroid gland carcinoma · medullary thyroid gland carcinoma
renal cell carcinoma · gastrointestinal stromal tumor · neuroendocrine neoplasm
non-small cell lung carcinoma · adenocarcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma
lung adenocarcinoma · non-small cell squamous lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma
Tractability
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 3 drugs that target this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.
- New publicationEfficacy of pembrolizumab in microsatellite-stable, tumor mutational burden-high metastatic colorectal cancer: genomic signatures and clinical outcomes.
- Withdrawn from market
Market withdrawal: Gavreto (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 publicationMachine-learning and mechanistic modeling of metastatic breast cancer after neoadjuvant treatment.
- New publicationGenomic profiling in GIST: Implications in clinical outcome and future challenges.
- New publicationPralsetinib in Patients with Advanced/Metastatic Rearranged During Transfection (RET)-Altered Thyroid Cancer: Updated Efficacy and Safety Data from the ARROW Study.
- New publicationNivolumab plus Cabozantinib versus Sunitinib for Advanced Renal-Cell Carcinoma.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Sunitinib Accord (EMA)
- New publicationTargeted therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma.
- New publicationLiver transarterial chemoembolization and sunitinib for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma: Results of the PRODIGE 16 study.
- New publicationUpdated efficacy results from the JAVELIN Renal 101 trial: first-line avelumab plus axitinib versus sunitinib in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.
- New publicationMolecular targeted and immune checkpoint therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
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.