About this Research Topic

Background

The family of Src protein kinases are protooncogenes essential for cell morphology, motility, proliferation, and survival. Src tyrosine kinase inhibitors (STKIs) are small molecules that have been used in the clinic for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) since the approval by FDA of imatinib in 2001. Since then, other STKIs such as nilotinib, dasatinib, bosutinib and ponatinib have been developed and approved for the treatment of CML in order to overcome resistances due to specific mutations in BCR-ABL1, the constitutively activated tyrosine kinase
that is causative agent of CML.

As new STKIs have been developed, their spectrum of action has been increasingly less specific to BCR-ABL1, affecting other unrelated tyrosine kinases. This Research Topic will be the first to update the current situation of STKIs for treating CML and how they are progressively being used for treating other cancer types.

Second, as new side effects different from the expected ones may be detected as drugs are increasingly used in the clinic, we will update the most important side effects that have been recently detected, which is especially important for ponatinib.

Third, some STKIs show immunomodulatory properties that have not been fully understood yet and therefore, we will focus on this immunomodulatory activity, as well as on the increasing interest in the role of STKIs in inflammation and senescence.

Last but not least, another intriguing property of STKIs is their antiviral effect, likely by enhancing cytotoxic pathways that may be shared by antitumor and antiviral responses. Therefore, we will analyze the remarkable ability of some STKIs to enhance both humoral and cellular response against cytomegalovirus and even the possibility of using STKIs against HIV-1 infection will be explored.

Keywords: Src tyrosine kinase inhibitors, chronic myeloid leukemia, immunomodulatory properties, antiviral effect, inflammation and senescence

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