Protein / target

DNA topoisomerase 1

TOP1P11387Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Clinically validated
Therapeutic maturity
10
Approved medicines
30
Clinical trials
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Approved Drug

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Protein serine/threonine kinase activity

Strongest disease association

small cell lung carcinoma

Clinical evidence · score 0.65

Therapeutic maturity

Clinically validated target

10 approved medicines against this target

Druggability

Small molecule

Open Targets tractability · Approved Drug

Clinical development

10 approved · 16 in clinical development

30 linked trials

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

Releases the supercoiling and torsional tension of DNA introduced during the DNA replication and transcription by transiently cleaving and rejoining one strand of the DNA duplex. Introduces a single-strand break via transesterification at a target site in duplex DNA. The scissile phosphodiester is attacked by the catalytic tyrosine of the enzyme, resulting in the formation of a DNA-(3'-phosphotyrosyl)-enzyme intermediate and the expulsion of a 5'-OH DNA strand. The free DNA strand then rotates around the intact phosphodiester bond on the opposing strand, thus removing DNA supercoils. Finally, in the religation step, the DNA 5'-OH attacks the covalent intermediate to expel the active-site tyrosine and restore the DNA phosphodiester backbone (By similarity). Regulates the alternative splicing of tissue factor (F3) pre-mRNA in endothelial cells. Involved in the circadian transcription of the core circadian clock component BMAL1 by altering the chromatin structure around the ROR response elements (ROREs) on the BMAL1 promoter

Subcellular location

Nucleus, nucleolusNucleus, nucleoplasm
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (39)

Domains & features

Topo IB-type catalytic

Gene Ontology

  • Cchromosome
  • Cdense fibrillar component
  • Cfibrillar center
  • Cnucleolus
  • Cnucleoplasm
  • Cnucleus
  • CP-body
  • Cperikaryon
  • Cprotein-DNA complex
  • FATP binding
  • Fchromatin binding
  • Fchromatin DNA binding

765 aa · 91 kDa

Biological roles

Reactome v97

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

Transcriptional regulationUniProt · GOKinase signallingGOApoptosis & cell deathGO
View supporting evidence

Transcriptional regulation

  • ·Releases the supercoiling and torsional tension of DNA introduced during the DNA replica…
  • ·RNA polymerase II cis-regulatory region sequence-specific DNA binding
  • ·circadian regulation of gene expression
  • ·rRNA transcription

Kinase signalling

  • ·protein serine/threonine kinase activity

Apoptosis & cell death

  • ·programmed cell death
View underlying pathways (1)

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.

TOP2ATDP1TOP2BTP53TOPORSPARP1ALYREFSRSF1BTBD1RBMXTOP1

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

3

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.

trastuzumab deruxtecan
Narrow target profileApprovedInhibitor

DNA topoisomerase I inhibitor

Appears in clinical studies involving breast cancer, HER2 positive breast carcinoma, breast neoplasm, neoplasm

Direct interaction with this protein · 1 of 2 recorded protein targets — narrow recorded profile

sacituzumab govitecan
Narrow target profileApprovedInhibitor

DNA topoisomerase I inhibitor

Appears in clinical studies involving breast cancer, urothelial carcinoma, triple-negative breast carcinoma, breast neoplasm

Direct interaction with this protein · 1 of 2 recorded protein targets — narrow recorded profile

patritumab deruxtecan
Narrow target profileApprovedInhibitor

DNA topoisomerase I inhibitor

Appears in clinical studies involving neoplasm, non-small cell lung carcinoma, breast cancer, colorectal cancer

Direct interaction with this protein · 1 of 2 recorded protein targets — narrow recorded profile

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

Translational evidence

Open Targets 26

Why this target matters therapeutically — disease associations, drugs in development, tractability and safety, from Open Targets.

Highest-confidence therapeutic associations

Diseases where a drug acting on this target has already reached clinical development.

breast cancer0.98

Clinical · overall 0.62

small cell lung carcinoma0.97

Clinical · overall 0.65

neoplasm0.94

Clinical · overall 0.60

cervical cancer0.93

Clinical · overall 0.57

colorectal cancer0.92

Clinical · overall 0.57

Highest overall evidence

Remaining associations by Open Targets' aggregated evidence score.

non-small cell lung carcinoma0.58

Clinical

ovarian cancer0.56

Clinical

triple-negative breast carcinoma0.55

Clinical

neurodegenerative disease0.52

Pathway

carcinoma0.51

Clinical

Show all associations
small cell lung carcinoma0.65
breast cancer0.62
neoplasm0.60
non-small cell lung carcinoma0.58
colorectal cancer0.57
cervical cancer0.57
ovarian cancer0.56
triple-negative breast carcinoma0.55
neurodegenerative disease0.52
carcinoma0.51

Open Targets ranks 539 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 · 26 total

DIFLOMOTECANPhase 2

small cell lung carcinoma

TOPOTECANApproval

ovarian cancer · small cell lung carcinoma · cervical cancer

LABETUZUMAB GOVITECANPhase 2

colorectal cancer

CAMPTOTHECIN-20-O-PROPIONATEPhase 2

small cell lung carcinoma

DATOPOTAMAB DERUXTECANApproval

breast cancer · breast neoplasm · neoplasm

AR-67Phase 2

glioblastoma · myelodysplastic syndrome · chronic myelomonocytic leukemia

MURELETECANPhase 1
BELOTECANApproval

neoplasm · small cell lung carcinoma · cervical carcinoma

IRINOTECAN HYDROCHLORIDEApproval

carcinoma · adenocarcinoma · pancreatic neoplasm

SACITUZUMAB GOVITECANApproval

breast cancer · urothelial carcinoma · triple-negative breast carcinoma

Tractability

SM · Approved DrugSM · Structure with LigandSM · High-Quality LigandSM · High-Quality PocketSM · Druggable FamilyPR · UniProt UbiquitinationPR · Database UbiquitinationPR · Half-life DataPR · Small Molecule BinderOC · Approved Drug

Safety liabilities

Neutropenia

Clinical trials

30

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 (24)

ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING · via trastuzumab deruxtecan · NCT04294628

ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.

Forefront confidence

Synthesis

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.

small cell lung carcinomaWell supported
0.81
agreement 0.690.93
Clinical70%Somatic mutation19%Literature11%

Open Targets aggregate 0.65 · 3 independent evidence families

neoplasmWell supported
0.76
agreement 0.640.88
Clinical77%Literature13%Somatic mutation11%

Open Targets aggregate 0.60 · 3 independent evidence families

breast cancerWell supported
0.76
agreement 0.610.92
Clinical87%Literature13%

Open Targets aggregate 0.62 · 2 independent evidence families

non-small cell lung carcinomaModerately supported
0.74
agreement 0.620.86
Clinical70%Somatic mutation21%Literature8%

Open Targets aggregate 0.58 · 3 independent evidence families

colorectal cancerModerately supported
0.71
agreement 0.550.86
Clinical94%Literature6%

Open Targets aggregate 0.57 · 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 underlying per-type scores are shown above so the calculation can be checked.

What's happening now

51

Recent activity around this target, drawn from one canonical event stream. Every item is reached through 3 drugs that target this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.

  1. Indication expanded2026-06-24

    Indication expansion: SACITUZUMAB GOVITECAN (BLA761115)

    fda · regulatory · fda · via sacituzumab govitecan

  2. Indication expanded2026-06-24

    Indication expansion: SACITUZUMAB GOVITECAN (BLA761115)

    fda · regulatory · fda · via sacituzumab govitecan

  3. New publication2026-01-01
    Sacituzumab Govitecan plus Pembrolizumab for Advanced Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

    The New England journal of medicine · 2026 · 3 citations · Europe PMC · via sacituzumab govitecan

  4. New publication2025-05-30
    Patritumab deruxtecan in leptomeningeal metastatic disease of solid tumors: the phase 2 TUXEDO-3 trial.

    Nature medicine · 2025 · 16 citations · Europe PMC · via patritumab deruxtecan

  5. New publication2025-04-02
    Effective extracellular payload release and immunomodulatory interactions govern the therapeutic effect of trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd).

    Nature communications · 2025 · 61 citations · Europe PMC · via trastuzumab deruxtecan

  6. Label change2025-03-26

    Label change: SACITUZUMAB GOVITECAN (BLA761115)

    fda · regulatory · fda · via sacituzumab govitecan

  7. New publication2024-12-01
    Trastuzumab Deruxtecan with Nivolumab in HER2-Expressing Metastatic Breast or Urothelial Cancer: Analysis of the Phase Ib DS8201-A-U105 Study.

    Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2024 · 31 citations · Europe PMC · via trastuzumab deruxtecan

  8. Indication expanded2024-11-22

    Indication expansion: SACITUZUMAB GOVITECAN (BLA761115)

    fda · regulatory · fda · via sacituzumab govitecan

  9. New publication2024-10-01
    Sacituzumab govitecan in HR<sup>+</sup>HER2<sup>-</sup> metastatic breast cancer: the randomized phase 3 EVER-132-002 trial.

    Nature medicine · 2024 · 32 citations · Europe PMC · via sacituzumab govitecan

  10. New publication2024-10-01
    Real-World Clinical Outcomes With Sacituzumab Govitecan in Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

    JCO oncology practice · 2025 · 17 citations · Europe PMC · via sacituzumab govitecan

  11. New publication2024-09-13
    Trastuzumab deruxtecan in HER2-positive advanced breast cancer with or without brain metastases: a phase 3b/4 trial.

    Nature medicine · 2024 · 142 citations · Europe PMC · via trastuzumab deruxtecan

  12. New publication2024-08-01
    FDA approval summary: fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki for unresectable or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer with activating HER2 mutations.

    The oncologist · 2024 · 19 citations · Europe PMC · via trastuzumab deruxtecan

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.