By Joshua Havumaki
The Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor is the prototypical receptor tyrosine kinase whose mechanism of activation seems to reflect that of many other RTKs. Ligand stimulation induces dimerization, cross-phosphorylation and downstream (SH2 domain containing) effector activation. Due to its integral part in cell regulation as well as numerous other cellular processes, (e.g. growth, cell cycle, apoptosis) it is implicated in many cancers. With over 30,000 papers since its discovery in the 1960s, it is has become one of the most studied systems across a wide array of species.
In early 2000 the EGFR market saw an influx of research. Later in 2003 the FDA approved Iressa (designed by AstraZeneca) as a treatment for NSCLC (non-small-cell lung cancer). According to Biomedicine (11/27/07), drugs targeting the EGFR pathway generated approximately $5 billion in sales in the first nine months of 2007. The EGFR pathway has clearly played a prominent role in the TKI market.
Now that the systems biology and biomarker fields are continually growing and expanding, new wet-lab and in-silico techniques are emerging. Due to the already existing plethora of EGFR information as well as its comparatively long history and involvement in oncological research, I am quite certain that it will surely lead the pack in these new, emerging fields.
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