Protein / target
Tyrosine-protein kinase receptor UFO
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity
Primary system
Nervous system
Strongest disease association
acute myeloid leukemia
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
2 approved · 5 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 growth factor GAS6 and which is thus regulating many physiological processes including cell survival, cell proliferation, migration and differentiation. Ligand binding at the cell surface induces dimerization and autophosphorylation of AXL. Following activation by ligand, AXL binds and induces tyrosine phosphorylation of PI3-kinase subunits PIK3R1, PIK3R2 and PIK3R3; but also GRB2, PLCG1, LCK and PTPN11. Other downstream substrate candidates for AXL are CBL, NCK2, SOCS1 and TNS2. Recruitment of GRB2 and phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase regulatory subunits by AXL leads to the downstream activation of the AKT kinase. GAS6/AXL signaling plays a role in various processes such as endothelial cell survival during acidification by preventing apoptosis, optimal cytokine signaling during human natural killer cell development, hepatic regeneration, gonadotropin-releasing hormone neuron survival and migration, platelet activation, or regulation of thrombotic responses. Also plays an important role in inhibition of Toll-like receptors (TLRs)-mediated innate immune response
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (37)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Ccell surface
- Cextracellular exosome
- Cextracellular space
- Cplasma membrane
- Creceptor complex
- FATP binding
- Fphosphatidylserine binding
- Fprotein tyrosine kinase activity
- Ftransmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity
- Fvirus receptor activity
- Pcell maturation
- Pcell migration
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
- ·transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity
- ·positive regulation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B signal transduction
Immune signalling
- ·Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the…
- ·innate immune response
- ·positive regulation of cytokine-mediated signaling pathway
- ·symbiont entry into host cell
Haemostasis
- ·Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the…
- ·platelet activation
Apoptosis & cell death
- ·negative regulation of apoptotic process
- ·negative regulation of dendritic cell apoptotic process
Cell adhesion
- ·Receptor tyrosine kinase that transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the…
View underlying pathways (2)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 UFO inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving acute myeloid leukemia by FAB classification, acute myeloid leukemia, neoplasm, acute myeloid leukemia
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.
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 627 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 · 7 total
head and neck squamous cell carcinoma · myelodysplastic syndrome · non-small cell lung carcinoma
non-small cell lung carcinoma · renal cell adenocarcinoma · acute myeloid leukemia
neoplasm · non-small cell lung carcinoma
ovarian cancer · soft tissue sarcoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma
acute myeloid leukemia by FAB classification · acute myeloid leukemia · neoplasm
acute myeloid leukemia · myeloid leukemia
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 a drug that targets this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Xospata (EMA)
- New publicationGilteritinib or Chemotherapy for Relapsed or Refractory <i>FLT3</i>-Mutated AML.
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.