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Protein / target

Bcl-2-like protein 2

Encoded byBCL2L2Q92843Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Clinically validated
Therapeutic maturity
1
Approved medicines
Open Targets target-level
24
Clinical trials
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Advanced Clinical

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Disordered domain specific binding

Strongest disease association

Neurodegenerative Diseases

Via encoding gene BCL2L2 · Pathway evidence · score 0.53

Therapeutic position

Established drug target

Small molecules

Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.

Protein profile

UniProt 2026_02

Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.

Function overview

Promotes cell survival.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Promotes cell survival. Blocks dexamethasone-induced apoptosis. Mediates survival of postmitotic Sertoli cells by suppressing death-promoting activity of BAX

Subcellular location

Mitochondrion membrane
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (14)

Gene Ontology

  • CBcl-2 family protein complex
  • Ccytosol
  • Cmitochondrial outer membrane
  • Cmitochondrion
  • Fchannel activity
  • Fdisordered domain specific binding
  • Fidentical protein binding
  • Pextrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway in absence of ligand
  • Pintrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway in response to DNA damage
  • Pnegative regulation of apoptotic process
  • Ppositive regulation of apoptotic process
  • Pregulation of apoptotic process

193 aa · 21 kDa · 2 isoforms

Biological roles

What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.

Cell proliferation & survivalUniProtApoptosis & cell deathGO
View supporting evidence

Cell proliferation & survival

  • ·Promotes cell survival. Blocks dexamethasone-induced apoptosis. Mediates survival of pos…

Apoptosis & cell death

  • ·negative regulation of apoptotic process
  • ·positive regulation of apoptotic process
  • ·regulation of apoptotic process

Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.

Interaction neighbourhood

STRING v12.0

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.

BCL2L11PMAIP1BMFBIKMCL1BECN1HRKBBC3BAK1BADBCL2L2

10 strongest partners — larger node and heavier line mean higher confidence

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

1

How approved and investigational drugs engage this protein — mechanism and action type, direct vs complex targeting, and how broadly each acts across other targets. A drug-first view (the section above groups the approved ones disease-first); direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.

navitoclax
Narrow target profileApprovedInhibitor

Apoptosis regulator Bcl-W inhibitor

Direct interaction with this protein · 1 of 3 recorded protein targets — narrow recorded profile

ChEMBL mechanism, action type, target identity and approved indications. Open Targets clinical status.

Translational evidence

Open Targets 26

Why this target matters therapeutically, strongest evidence first. Disease associations are gene-level (via the gene that encodes this protein) and open into the full confidence synthesis; the development universe, tractability and safety annotations are target-level, from Open Targets.

Strongest disease associations · via encoding gene BCL2L2

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene BCL2L2 that encodes this protein — not a direct protein–disease relationship. Ranked by Forefront's causal-directness weighting, so genetically- and clinically-evidenced diseases lead over ones that merely share the literature.

Neoplasms
0.53Moderately supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.41

Small Cell Lung Carcinoma
0.35Limited support

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.29

Neurodegenerative Diseases
0.35Preliminary

Pathway evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.53 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Lymphoma
0.17Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.09

Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma
0.15Preliminary

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.11

View evidence synthesis (5)
NeoplasmsModerately supported
0.53
agreement 0.370.68
Clinical83%Literature17%

Open Targets aggregate 0.41 · 2 independent evidence families

Small Cell Lung CarcinomaLimited support
0.35
agreement 0.200.51
Clinical99%Literature1%

Open Targets aggregate 0.29 · 2 independent evidence families

Neurodegenerative DiseasesPreliminary
0.35
agreement 0.120.57
Pathway100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.53 · 1 independent evidence family · no direct causal or clinical evidence

LymphomaPreliminary
0.17
agreement 0.010.32
Literature54%Clinical46%

Open Targets aggregate 0.09 · 2 independent evidence families

Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-LymphomaPreliminary
0.15
agreement 0.000.30
Clinical87%Literature13%

Open Targets aggregate 0.11 · 2 independent evidence families

This ranking differs from Open Targets' own: re-weighting moves genetically-evidenced diseases above more heavily co-mentioned ones. 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 per-type scores above show the calculation.

Show all associations
Neurodegenerative Diseases0.53
Neoplasms0.41
Small Cell Lung Carcinoma0.29
Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma0.11
Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell0.11
Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute0.10
Lymphoma0.09

Drug development

3 compounds recorded · 1 approved · 2 in clinical development

Open Targets' development universe — every compound recorded against the target at any stage, not all approved medicines. Distinct from the 1 drug that targets this protein in Forefront's canonical graph: these count different sets and are not a subset relation.

View all recorded compounds (3)
OBATOCLAXPhase 2
NAVITOCLAXApproval
OBATOCLAX MESYLATEPhase 3

Open Targets known-drugs universe. Drug name and highest clinical stage only — the disease relationship is NOT read from this slice (it carries trial-context noise); approved indications come from the canonical graph above.

Tractability

Small moleculesStrong

Advanced Clinical and High-Quality Ligand support this modality.

AntibodiesEmerging

Feasibility evidence (uniprot loc high conf) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

Protein degradersEmerging

Feasibility evidence (database ubiquitination and small molecule binder) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

View underlying tractability evidence (7)
SM · Advanced ClinicalSM · High-Quality LigandSM · High-Quality PocketSM · Druggable FamilyAB · UniProt loc high confPR · Database UbiquitinationPR · Small Molecule Binder

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Clinical trials

24

Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein. Ranked by active status, then clinical phase and recency, and spread across the targeting drugs.

View all trials (20)

ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.