Published online Mar 14, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i10.1005
Peer-review started: November 29, 2019
First decision: January 7, 2020
Revised: January 14, 2020
Accepted: February 28, 2020
Article in press: February 28, 2020
Published online: March 14, 2020
Processing time: 105 Days and 21.6 Hours
Spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase expressed in most hematopoietic cells and non-hematopoietic cells and play a crucial role in both immune and non-immune biological responses. SYK mediate diverse cellular responses via an immune-receptor tyrosine-based activation motifs (ITAMs)-dependent signalling pathways, ITAMs-independent and ITAMs-semi-dependent signalling pathways. In liver, SYK expression has been observed in parenchymal (hepatocytes) and non-parenchymal cells (hepatic stellate cells and Kupffer cells), and found to be positively correlated with the disease severity. The implication of SYK pathway has been reported in different liver diseases including liver fibrosis, viral hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Antagonism of SYK pathway using kinase inhibitors have shown to attenuate the progression of liver diseases thereby suggesting SYK as a highly promising therapeutic target. This review summarizes the current understanding of SYK and its therapeutic implication in liver diseases.
Core tip: Spleen tyrosine kinase has reported to be positively correlated with disease severity and has shown to play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of liver diseases. Therefore, specific targeting of spleen tyrosine kinase pathway using kinase inhibitors is a highly promising therapeutic approach for the treatment of liver diseases.