C-MET

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

c-met is a proto-oncogene that encodes for a tyrosine kinase receptor for hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF). The c-Met protein is expressed mostly in epithelial cells, and due to its function it is also known as hepatocyte growth factor receptor, or HGFR. When HGF/SF activates c-Met, the latter in turn may activate a number of kinase pathways, including the pathway from Ras to Raf to Mek to the mitogen-activated protein kinase ERK1 to the transcription factor ETS1. Met signaling has been implicated in the etiology and malignant progression of human cancers [1].

Compugen (Israeli company) Ltd. has discovered a truncated splice variant of c-met. It comprises part of the extracellular domain and ends in a stretch of unique amino acids, and is secreted from the cell instead of being expressed as a membranal protein. This variant is now being tested as an antagonist of the HGF-Met pathway, as a potential therapuetic drug.

[edit] Further reading

Birchmeier, C., Birchmeier, W., Gheradi, E., & Vande Woude, G. F. (2003). Met, metastasis, motility and more. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, 4, 915—925. PMID 14685170 doi:10.1038/nrm1261

Zhang, Y., & Vande Woude, G. F. (2003). HGF/SF-Met signaling in the control of branching morphogenesis and invasion. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry, 88, 408—417. PMID 12520544 doi:10.1002/jcb.10358

Paumelle, R., Tulashe, D., Kherrouche, Z., Plaza, S., Leroy, C., Reveneau, S., Vandenbunder, B., & Fafeur, V. (2002). Hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor activates the ETS1 transcription factor by a RAS-RAF-MEK-ERK signaling pathway. Oncogene, 21, 2309—2319. PMID 11948414 doi:10.1038/sj.onc.1205297

UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot entry P08581: MET_HUMAN, ExPASy (Expert Protein Analysis System) proteomics server of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB).