Tyrosine kinases play a key role in a diverse biological processes such as cell growth, differentiation, migration, metabolism and apoptosis. However, dysregulation of tyrosine kinases has been found in a different types of cancer, and have been shown to correlate with angiogenesis. One way to block phosphotransferases pathways is inhibition with small molecule inhibitors. They operate by various mechanisms, one of them is to compete with ATP for the ATP binding site and reduce phosphorylation of tyrosine residues. We know receptor and nonreceptor inhibitors, which can be classified according to their acting target, for example ABL TKIs (dasatinib), EGFR TKIs (gefitinib), VEGFR TKIs (sunitinib)... Many tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as staurosporine, target a number of different kinases, which are involved in several signaling pathways. They are deffinitely more effective, but more important is to develop inhibitors with high selectivity and minimize posible treatment toxicities.
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