Integrin-linked kinase: a cancer therapeutic target unique among its ILK.
Cancer development requires the acquisition of several capabilities that include increased replicative potential, anchorage and growth-factor independence, evasion of apoptosis, angiogenesis, invasion of surrounding tissues and metastasis. One protein that has emerged as promoting many of these phenotypes when dysregulated is integrin-linked kinase (ILK), a unique intracellular adaptor and kinase that links the cell-adhesion receptors, integrins and growth factors to the actin cytoskeleton and to a range of signalling pathways. The recent findings of increased levels of ILK in various cancers, and that inhibition of ILK expression and activity is antitumorigenic, makes ILK an attractive target for cancer therapeutics.
Hannigan
Gregory
G
Cancer Research Program, Hospital for Sick Children, and Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Troussard
Armelle A
AA
Dedhar
Shoukat
S
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010766:Phosphorylation; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects*; D000099200:Scaffold Protein ILK
D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D000099200:Scaffold Protein ILK