RESEARCH ARTICLE
JAK Kinases in Health and Disease: An Update
Arian Laurence1, Marko Pesu2, 3, Olli Silvennoinen2, 3, John O’Shea*, 1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2012Volume: 6
Issue: Suppl 2
First Page: 232
Last Page: 244
Publisher ID: TORJ-6-232
DOI: 10.2174/1874312901206010232
Article History:
Received Date: 13/7/2011Revision Received Date: 25/6/2012
Acceptance Date: 29/6/2012
Electronic publication date: 7/9/2012
Collection year: 2012

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Janus kinases (Jaks) are critical signaling elements for a large subset of cytokines. As a consequence they play pivotal roles in the patho-physiology of many diseases including neoplastic and autoimmune diseases. Small molecule Jak inhibitors as therapeutic agents have become a reality and the palette of such inhibitors will likely expand. This review will summarize our current knowledge on these key enzymes and their associated pharmaceutical inhibitors.