The proto-oncogene SRC kinase is a well-studied regulator of cell proliferation, migration, survival and adhesion, and active SRC is implicated in promoting cancer, including prostate and breast cancer. University of Illinois Cancer Center members and other University of Illinois Chicago researchers recently reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry that protein tyrosine kinase 6 (PTK6) can directly activate SRC kinase.
The first author of the paper, “Protein Tyrosine Kinase 6 Regulates Activation of SRC Kinase,” is Wanian Alwanian, a PhD student in the lab of Cancer Center member Angela Tyner, PhD. Tyner, co-leader of the Cancer Center’s Cancer Biology research program, is the article’s corresponding author. Fellow author and Cancer Center member Andre Kajdacsy-Balla, MD, PhD, is the leader of the Translational Pathology Shared Resource supported by the Cancer Center.
The group previously reported that PTK6 is activated and contributes to development of prostate and breast cancers. The finding that PTK6 activates SRC sheds new light on how PTK6 promotes cancer. The study demonstrates that drugs that inhibit both PTK6 and SRC may have increased efficacy in treatment of PTK6 positive cancers.