EGFR (Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor)

Abstract

ERBB family member epidermal receptor tyrosine kinase (EGFR) is composed of 28 exons and 27 introns. EGFR codes for 11 transcripts and 8 of them are protein coding. EGFR is a transmembrane glycoprotein that can be activated by several different ligands such as epidermal growth factor (EGF), transforming growth factor-alpha (TGFA), heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (HBEGF), betacellulin (BTC), amphiregulin (AREG), epiregulin (EREG), and epigen (EPGN) (Singh, 2016). Ligand binding induces the dimerization of EGFR and autophosphorylation followed by a cascade of downstream phosphorylation events (Capuani et al., 2015). EGFR activation plays a key role in cell survival, proliferation, migration and differentiation (Purba, 2017).