Protein / target
Presenilin-1
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Aspartic endopeptidase activity, intramembrane cleaving
Strongest disease association
Frontotemporal Dementia
Therapeutic position
Established drug target
Research activity
Emerging research
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Catalytic subunit of the gamma-secretase complex, an endoprotease complex that catalyzes the intramembrane cleavage of integral membrane proteins such as Notch receptors and APP (amyloid-beta precursor protein).
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Catalytic subunit of the gamma-secretase complex, an endoprotease complex that catalyzes the intramembrane cleavage of integral membrane proteins such as Notch receptors and APP (amyloid-beta precursor protein) (PubMed:10206644, PubMed:10545183, PubMed:10593990, PubMed:10811883, PubMed:10899933, PubMed:12679784, PubMed:12740439, PubMed:15274632, PubMed:20460383, PubMed:25043039, PubMed:26280335, PubMed:28269784, PubMed:30598546, PubMed:30630874). Requires the presence of the other members of the gamma-secretase complex for protease activity (PubMed:15274632, PubMed:25043039, PubMed:26280335, PubMed:30598546, PubMed:30630874). Plays a role in Notch and Wnt signaling cascades and regulation of downstream processes via its role in processing key regulatory proteins, and by regulating cytosolic CTNNB1 levels (PubMed:10593990, PubMed:10811883, PubMed:10899933, PubMed:9738936). Stimulates cell-cell adhesion via its interaction with CDH1; this stabilizes the complexes between CDH1 (E-cadherin) and its interaction partners CTNNB1 (beta-catenin), CTNND1 and JUP (gamma-catenin) (PubMed:11953314). Under conditions of apoptosis or calcium influx, cleaves CDH1 (PubMed:11953314). This promotes the disassembly of the complexes between CDH1 and CTNND1, JUP and CTNNB1, increases the pool of cytoplasmic CTNNB1, and thereby negatively regulates Wnt signaling (PubMed:11953314, PubMed:9738936). Required for normal embryonic brain and skeleton development, and for normal angiogenesis (By similarity). Mediates the proteolytic cleavage of EphB2/CTF1 into EphB2/CTF2 (PubMed:17428795, PubMed:28269784). The holoprotein functions as a calcium-leak channel that allows the passive movement of calcium from endoplasmic reticulum to cytosol and is therefore involved in calcium homeostasis (PubMed:16959576, PubMed:25394380). Involved in the regulation of neurite outgrowth (PubMed:15004326, PubMed:20460383). Is a regulator of presynaptic facilitation, spike transmission and synaptic vesicles replenishment in a process that depends on gamma-secretase activity. It acts through the control of SYT7 presynaptic expression (By similarity)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (88)Hide
Gene Ontology
- Caggresome
- Cazurophil granule membrane
- Ccell cortex
- Ccell surface
- Ccentrosome
- Cciliary rootlet
- Cdendrite
- Cdendritic shaft
- Cearly endosome membrane
- Cendoplasmic reticulum
- Cendoplasmic reticulum membrane
- Cgamma-secretase complex
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Synaptic signalling
- ·Catalytic subunit of the gamma-secretase complex, an endoprotease complex that catalyzes…
- ·Synapse
- ·glutamatergic synapse
- ·postsynapse
Proteolysis
- ·Catalytic subunit of the gamma-secretase complex, an endoprotease complex that catalyzes…
- ·aspartic endopeptidase activity, intramembrane cleaving
- ·aspartic-type endopeptidase activity
- ·endopeptidase activity
Cell adhesion
- ·Catalytic subunit of the gamma-secretase complex, an endoprotease complex that catalyzes…
- ·cell-cell adhesion
Transcriptional regulation
- ·negative regulation of gene expression
- ·negative regulation of transcription by RNA polymerase II
- ·positive regulation of DNA-templated transcription
- ·positive regulation of gene expression
Apoptosis & cell death
- ·apoptotic process
- ·negative regulation of apoptotic process
- ·negative regulation of neuron apoptotic process
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
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 PSEN1
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene PSEN1that 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
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.
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Drug development
7 compounds recorded · 2 approved · 5 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 (11)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
Research activity
Papers linked directly to this protein. This is the protein's own literature — descriptor-derived papers are kept separate below.
Most cited
Recent
Europe PMC papers linked directly to this protein.