Mechanism of action of tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

The drug competes with ATP for its specific binding site in the kinase domain. Thus, whereas the physiologic binding of ATP to its pocket allows Bcr-Abl to phosphorylate selected tyrosine residues on its substrates (left diagram), a synthetic ATP mimic such as STI571 fits this pocket equally well but does not provide the essential phosphate group to be transferred to the substrate (right diagram). The downstream chain of reactions is then halted because, with its tyrosines in the unphosphorylated form, this protein does not assume the necessary conformation to ensure association with its effector.