Anti-MerTK (Tyr749/753/754) Antibody

Along with Tyro-3 and Axl, Mer is a member of the TAM family of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs). The TAM family of RTKs regulates cell proliferation/survival, cell adhesion and migration, and blood clot stabilization processes, along with the regulation of inflammatory cytokine release (Linger et al, 2008). Additionally, the TAM family has been linked to coagulopathy and cancer when altered experimentally or genetically (Linger et al, 2008). Tri-phosphorylation of MerTK at tyr749, tyr753 and tyr754 has been identified as a key target in platelet aggregation for developing a new anti-platelet drug that decreases bleeding complications, which are current side effects of similar drugs on the market today (Zhang et al, 2013). MerTK is also seen as a therapeutic target for treating lymphoblastic leukemias, melanoma, breast, lung, colon, liver, gastric, kidney, ovarian, uterine and brain cancers (Graham et al, 1994). There has recently been increased interest in synthesizing novel ATP-competitive small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors to decrease tri-phosphorylation of MerTK at tyr749, tyr753, and tyr754 as a therapeutic target to treat AML (Lee-Sherick et al, 2013).