Protein / target
Aryl hydrocarbon receptor
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Cis-regulatory region sequence-specific DNA binding
Primary system
Immune system
Strongest disease association
foveal hypoplasia 3
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
1 approved
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function
Ligand-activated transcription factor that enables cells to adapt to changing conditions by sensing compounds from the environment, diet, microbiome and cellular metabolism, and which plays important roles in development, immunity and cancer (PubMed:23275542, PubMed:30373764, PubMed:32818467, PubMed:7961644). Upon ligand binding, translocates into the nucleus, where it heterodimerizes with ARNT and induces transcription by binding to xenobiotic response elements (XRE) (PubMed:23275542, PubMed:30373764, PubMed:7961644). Regulates a variety of biological processes, including angiogenesis, hematopoiesis, drug and lipid metabolism, cell motility and immune modulation (PubMed:12213388). Xenobiotics can act as ligands: upon xenobiotic-binding, activates the expression of multiple phase I and II xenobiotic chemical metabolizing enzyme genes (such as the CYP1A1 gene) (PubMed:7961644, PubMed:33193710). Mediates biochemical and toxic effects of halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons (PubMed:34521881, PubMed:7961644). Next to xenobiotics, natural ligands derived from plants, microbiota, and endogenous metabolism are potent AHR agonists (PubMed:18076143). Tryptophan (Trp) derivatives constitute an important class of endogenous AHR ligands (PubMed:32818467, PubMed:32866000). Acts as a negative regulator of anti-tumor immunity: indoles and kynurenic acid generated by Trp catabolism act as ligand and activate AHR, thereby promoting AHR-driven cancer cell motility and suppressing adaptive immunity (PubMed:32818467). Regulates the circadian clock by inhibiting the basal and circadian expression of the core circadian component PER1 (PubMed:28602820). Inhibits PER1 by repressing the CLOCK-BMAL1 heterodimer mediated transcriptional activation of PER1 (PubMed:28602820). The heterodimer ARNT:AHR binds to the dioxin response element (DRE) of target gene promoters and activates their transcription (PubMed:28602820)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (50)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Caryl hydrocarbon receptor complex
- Cchromatin
- Ccytoplasm
- Ccytosol
- Ccytosolic aryl hydrocarbon receptor complex
- Cnuclear aryl hydrocarbon receptor complex
- Cnucleoplasm
- Cnucleus
- Cprotein-containing complex
- Ctranscription regulator complex
- Fcis-regulatory region sequence-specific DNA binding
- FDNA binding
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Transcriptional regulation
- ·Ligand-activated transcription factor that enables cells to adapt to changing conditions…
- ·transcription regulator complex
- ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity
- ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
Immune signalling
- ·negative regulation of inflammatory response
- ·negative regulation of T cell mediated immune response to tumor cell
- ·regulation of adaptive immune response
- ·regulation of B cell proliferation
Nuclear receptor signalling
- ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity
- ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
- ·nuclear receptor activity
Metabolic enzyme activity
- ·xenobiotic metabolic process
Apoptosis & cell death
- ·apoptotic process
View underlying pathways (5)Hide underlying pathways
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Interaction neighbourhood
Proteins with the strongest functional or physical association. Node size and line weight reflect STRING confidence; hover or select a partner to inspect one association.
Functional and physical associations from STRING v12.0. Only associations with this protein are drawn — partner-to-partner links are not part of this evidence.
Drugs targeting this protein
Whether each drug engages this protein directly or through a complex, and how many other targets are recorded for it. Direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.
Aryl hydrocarbon receptor agonist
Appears in clinical studies involving atopic eczema, psoriasis vulgaris, psoriasis, psoriasis
ChEMBL mechanism, action type and target identity. Open Targets clinical status and indications.
Translational evidence
Why this target matters therapeutically — disease associations, drugs in development, tractability and safety, from Open Targets.
Strongest genetic associations
Human genetic evidence — the most direct causal link between this target and a disease.
Highest-confidence therapeutic associations
Diseases where a drug acting on this target has already reached clinical development.
Highest overall evidence
Remaining associations by Open Targets' aggregated evidence score.
Show all associationsHide all associations
Open Targets ranks 3,204 associations for this target and we store the top 10 by aggregated score. The long tail is largely literature co-mention and RNA-expression evidence, not evidence that this target drives those diseases.
Known drugs · 1 total
atopic eczema · psoriasis vulgaris · psoriasis
Tractability
Safety liabilities
Clinical trials
Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein.
Show remaining trials (1)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
Related literature
Papers indexed under “Receptors, Aryl Hydrocarbon” — a subject heading that covers this protein without being specific to it. Shown as context; not counted as this protein's own research activity.
Europe PMC literature, reached through a MeSH descriptor linked to this protein.
Forefront confidence
Our own weighting of the evidence behind each disease association. Human genetics and clinical evidence count for most; literature co-mention counts for little, because two entities sharing an abstract is not evidence that one drives the other.
The evidence agreement range shows how closely the independent evidence families agree — it is not a statistical confidence interval, and nothing here is fitted to outcome data. Derived from Open Targets evidence types under Forefront weighting; the underlying per-type scores are shown above so the calculation can be checked.
What's happening now
Recent activity around this target, drawn from one canonical event stream. Every item is reached through a drug that targets this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.
Objective event titles are shown unmodified; the event kind and significance line are derived from structured fields. Forefront AttentionEvent stream aggregating Europe PMC Regulatory filings ClinicalTrials.gov.