Tyrosine kinase Src inhibitors: Potential therapeutic applications

More than 20 years after its discovery, tyrosine kinase Src is still the focus of intense research, in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry. A prototype for non-receptor tyrosine kinases and proto-oncogenes, Src also has a specific role in bone biology. Src's essential role in osteoclast-mediated hone resorption relies on its high expression in this cell type and on the presence of specific substrates, the identity of which is currently being unraveled. Recent identification of selective, potent and orally available Src family kinase inhibitors and their detailed characterization in cells and in animal models of bone loss has produced a new impetus and a novel tool in the field, Here we review the cellular and molecular mechanisms through which Src kinase inhibitors could find an application as therapeutics, particularly in the fields of bone and cancer-induced bone metastases. (C) 2000 Prous Science. All rights reserved.