Protein / target

C-C motif chemokine 2

Encoded byCCL2P13500Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot

UniProt: P13500 Ensembl: ENSG00000108691 HGNC: HGNC:10618 NCBI Gene: 6347

Clinical-stage

Therapeutic maturity

Clinical candidates

Small-molecule tractable

Druggability

High-Quality Ligand

Research papers

Protein at a glance

Biological role

CCR2 chemokine receptor binding

Strongest disease association

Crohn's Disease

Via encoding gene CCL2 · Genetic evidence · score 0.59

Therapeutic position

Clinically advancing target

Antibodies

Research activity

Emerging research

10 papers · latest 2024

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

Acts as a ligand for C-C chemokine receptor CCR2.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Acts as a ligand for C-C chemokine receptor CCR2 (PubMed:10529171, PubMed:10587439, PubMed:9837883). Signals through binding and activation of CCR2 and induces a strong chemotactic response and mobilization of intracellular calcium ions (PubMed:10587439, PubMed:9837883). Exhibits a chemotactic activity for monocytes and basophils but not neutrophils or eosinophils (PubMed:8195247, PubMed:8627182, PubMed:9792674). May be involved in the recruitment of monocytes into the arterial wall during the disease process of atherosclerosis (PubMed:8107690)

Subcellular location

Secreted

Domains and Gene Ontology detail (57)

Gene Ontology

Cextracellular region
Cextracellular space
Cmembrane
FCCR chemokine receptor binding
FCCR2 chemokine receptor binding
Fchemoattractant activity
Fchemokine activity
Fchemokine receptor binding
Fprotein kinase activity
Fsignaling receptor binding
Pangiogenesis
Panimal organ morphogenesis

99 aa · 11 kDa

Biological roles

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

Cell migrationGOExcitatory neurotransmissionGOGrowth-factor signallingGOCell-cycle regulationGOImmune signallingGOApoptosis & cell deathGO

View supporting evidence

Cell migration

·astrocyte cell migration
·chemotaxis
·eosinophil chemotaxis
·macrophage chemotaxis

Excitatory neurotransmission

·positive regulation of synaptic transmission, glutamatergic

Growth-factor signalling

·cellular response to fibroblast growth factor stimulus

Cell-cycle regulation

·negative regulation of G1/S transition of mitotic cell cycle

Immune signalling

·antimicrobial humoral immune response mediated by antimicrobial peptide
·cellular response to interleukin-1
·cytokine-mediated signaling pathway
·helper T cell extravasation

Apoptosis & cell death

·negative regulation of glial cell apoptotic process
·negative regulation of neuron apoptotic process
·positive regulation of endothelial cell apoptotic process

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

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 CCL2

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene CCL2that 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.

Crohn's Disease

0.62Moderately supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.37

Alcohol drinking

0.60Moderately supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.36

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

0.54Moderately supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.32

Colitis, Ulcerative

0.52Moderately supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.31

Colitis

0.48Limited support

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.27

View evidence synthesis (5)

Crohn's DiseaseModerately supported

0.62

agreement 0.49–0.75

Genetic89%Literature5%RNA expression5%

Open Targets aggregate 0.37 · 3 independent evidence families

Alcohol drinkingModerately supported

0.60

agreement 0.46–0.74

Genetic95%Literature5%

Open Targets aggregate 0.36 · 2 independent evidence families

Inflammatory Bowel DiseasesModerately supported

0.54

agreement 0.41–0.66

Genetic89%Literature10%RNA expression1%

Open Targets aggregate 0.32 · 3 independent evidence families

Colitis, UlcerativeModerately supported

0.52

agreement 0.40–0.65

Genetic88%RNA expression9%Literature4%

Open Targets aggregate 0.31 · 3 independent evidence families

ColitisLimited support

0.48

agreement 0.34–0.62

Genetic77%Literature23%

Open Targets aggregate 0.27 · 2 independent evidence families

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

Crohn's Disease0.37

Alcohol drinking0.36

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases0.32

Colitis, Ulcerative0.31

Urolithiasis0.28

Cartilage Diseases0.28

Colitis0.27

Psoriasis0.26

Drug development

1 compounds recorded · 1 in clinical development

Open Targets' development universe — every compound recorded against the target at any stage, not all approved medicines.

View all recorded compounds (1)

CARLUMABPhase 2

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 molecules — Emerging

Feasibility evidence (high-quality ligand) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

Antibodies — Strong

Advanced Clinical and UniProt loc high conf support this modality.

Protein degraders — Emerging

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

View underlying tractability evidence (6)

SM · High-Quality LigandAB · Advanced ClinicalAB · UniProt loc high confAB · GO CC high confAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMMPR · Small Molecule Binder

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Safety-related annotations

regulation of gene expressionToxCast

Terms indexed against this target in Open Targets' safety data, with their datasource. These are annotations, not causal claims: the direction of effect (whether activation or inhibition is implicated), species and evidence strength are not captured here, so an entry does not mean that modulating this target is known to cause that condition.