Comprehensive profiling of clinically approved kinase inhibitors reveals mutation-specific inhibitors and opportunities for drug repurposing

Protein kinases are central to cell signaling and key drug targets in cancer. To inform potential repurposing of kinase inhibitors, we profiled 86 of the ~100 approved kinase inhibitors against 758 kinases, including 409 wild-type and 349 oncogenic variants using a biochemical kinase assay. Our results increase the number of druggable kinases from 89 to 235, revealing that 94% of mutations and 97% of fusions represented in our samples are inhibited by at least one existing drug. The dataset revealed mutation-specific selectivity, especially in tyrosine kinases FGFR and MET, highlighting gaps and repurposing opportunities. We experimentally validated several actionable findings, including tepotinib to target the IRAK1/4-cholesterol pathway in glioblastoma, brigatinib to target the MARK2/3-Hippo pathway in pancreatic cancer and gilteritinib to overcome MET mutation-driven drug resistance and metastasis. To facilitate exploration of our data, we provide KIRHub, a web-based tool that allows identification of existing inhibitors of wild-type and mutated kinases to guide precision oncology.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Nature Biotechnology
Published
2026-04-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-026-03090-8
Primary Topic
Hippo pathway signaling and YAP/TAZ
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Comprehensive profiling of clinically approved kinase inhibitors reveals mutation-specific inhibitors and opportunities for drug repurposing

Taranjit S. Gujral, Shuguang Liang, Songli Zhu, Mehlam Saifudeen et al.
Nature Biotechnology
Hippo pathway signaling and YAP/TAZ
article

Comprehensive profiling of clinically approved kinase inhibitors reveals mutation-specific inhibitors and opportunities for drug repurposing

Taranjit S. Gujral, Shuguang Liang, Songli Zhu, Mehlam Saifudeen, Haiching Ma, Marina Chan, Alison Goupil, Deanna F. Mische, Christian M. Loch, Mia Eason
article en

Abstract

Protein kinases are central to cell signaling and key drug targets in cancer. To inform potential repurposing of kinase inhibitors, we profiled 86 of the ~100 approved kinase inhibitors against 758 kinases, including 409 wild-type and 349 oncogenic variants using a biochemical kinase assay. Our results increase the number of druggable kinases from 89 to 235, revealing that 94% of mutations and 97% of fusions represented in our samples are inhibited by at least one existing drug. The dataset revealed mutation-specific selectivity, especially in tyrosine kinases FGFR and MET, highlighting gaps and repurposing opportunities. We experimentally validated several actionable findings, including tepotinib to target the IRAK1/4-cholesterol pathway in glioblastoma, brigatinib to target the MARK2/3-Hippo pathway in pancreatic cancer and gilteritinib to overcome MET mutation-driven drug resistance and metastasis. To facilitate exploration of our data, we provide KIRHub, a web-based tool that allows identification of existing inhibitors of wild-type and mutated kinases to guide precision oncology.

Nature Biotechnology
Cape Town HVTN Immunology Laboratory / Hutchinson Centre Research Institute of South Africa (ZA), University of Washington (US), Fred Hutch Cancer Center (US), Reaction Biology Corporation (United States) (US)
National Science Foundation, Washington Research Foundation, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Washington, Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation
Good health and well-being
Openalex Percentile: Top 12%
Hippo pathway signaling and YAP/TAZ
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.