Protein / target
DNA polymerase epsilon catalytic subunit A
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Single-stranded DNA 3'-5' DNA exonuclease
Strongest disease association
Colorectal Neoplasms
Therapeutic position
Established drug target
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Catalytic component of the DNA polymerase epsilon complex.
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Catalytic component of the DNA polymerase epsilon complex (PubMed:10801849). Participates in chromosomal DNA replication (By similarity). Required during synthesis of the leading DNA strands at the replication fork, binds at/or near replication origins and moves along DNA with the replication fork (By similarity). Has 3'-5' proofreading exonuclease activity that corrects errors arising during DNA replication (By similarity). Involved in DNA synthesis during DNA repair (PubMed:20227374, PubMed:27573199). Along with DNA polymerase POLD1 and DNA polymerase POLK, has a role in excision repair (NER) synthesis following UV irradiation (PubMed:20227374)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (21)Hide
Gene Ontology
- Cepsilon DNA polymerase complex
- Cnucleoplasm
- Cnucleus
- Cplasma membrane
- F4 iron, 4 sulfur cluster binding
- Fchromatin binding
- FDNA binding
- FDNA-directed DNA polymerase activity
- Fnucleotide binding
- Fsingle-stranded DNA 3'-5' DNA exonuclease activity
- Fzinc ion binding
- Pbase-excision repair, gap-filling
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Cell-cycle regulation
- ·G1/S transition of mitotic cell cycle
- ·mitotic cell cycle
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Approved medicines with mapped indications
Approved therapies targeting this protein, grouped by what they are approved to treat — the disease-first view of the medicines below. Relationships come from the canonical approved-indication graph (ChEMBL phase-4), the same source as the drug cards.
Broader indication categories (1)Hide
Broad umbrella indications (e.g. “Neoplasms”). Shown here because every medicine also appears under a more specific disease above — kept for completeness, de-emphasised for clarity.
5 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 2 shown here are those on this page with a canonical approved disease indication in the graph. Approved indications from ChEMBL (phase-4), via the canonical drug→disease graph.
Drugs targeting this protein
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.
DNA polymerase (alpha/delta/epsilon) inhibitor
Indicated for Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma, Neoplasms
DNA polymerase (alpha/delta/epsilon) inhibitor
Indicated for Leukemia, Lymphoid, Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute, Meningeal Carcinomatosis, Meningeal Neoplasms
ChEMBL mechanism, action type, target identity and approved indications. Open Targets clinical status.
Translational evidence
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 POLE
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene POLEthat 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.
View evidence synthesis (5)Hide
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.
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Drug development
7 compounds recorded · 5 approved · 2 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (7)Hide
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 — Strong
Antibodies — Emerging
Protein degraders — Emerging
View underlying tractability evidence (6)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
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. Ranked by active status, then clinical phase and recency, and spread across the targeting drugs.
View all trials (26)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
What's happening now
Recent therapeutic activity around this target — regulatory actions, clinical trials and safety signals for 2 drugs that target this protein, plus publications where such a drug is a genuine subject. Every item is reached indirectly through the drug, not the protein itself; incidental mentions (a paper that merely measures a drug) and press items are excluded.
- Label change
Label change: CYTARABINE (ANDA072168)
- Label change
Label change: CYTARABINE (ANDA072945)
- Label change
Label change: CYTARABINE (ANDA075383)
- Label change
Label change: CYTARABINE (ANDA071868)
- Withdrawn from market
Market withdrawal: Ivozall (EMA)
- New publicationSafety and pharmacokinetics of the antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) LY2181308 as a single-agent or in combination with idarubicin and cytarabine in patients with refractory or relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
- New publicationClofarabine plus cytarabine compared with cytarabine alone in older patients with relapsed or refractory acute myelogenous leukemia: results from the CLASSIC I Trial.
- New publicationPhase II study of clofarabine monotherapy in previously untreated older adults with acute myeloid leukemia and unfavorable prognostic factors.
- New publicationPhase II study of intermediate-dose cytarabine in patients with relapsed or refractory Ewing sarcoma: a report from the Children's Oncology Group.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: CYTARABINE (ANDA072945)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: CYTARABINE (ANDA072168)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: CYTARABINE (ANDA071868)
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.