Protein / target
Sodium channel protein type 9 subunit alpha
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Voltage-gated sodium channel
Strongest disease association
Channelopathy-associated congenital insensitivity to pain, autosomal recessive
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
Pore-forming subunit of Nav1.7, a voltage-gated sodium (Nav) channel that directly mediates the depolarizing phase of action potentials in excitable membranes.
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Pore-forming subunit of Nav1.7, a voltage-gated sodium (Nav) channel that directly mediates the depolarizing phase of action potentials in excitable membranes (PubMed:38381792, PubMed:40768348). Navs, also called VGSCs (voltage-gated sodium channels) or VDSCs (voltage-dependent sodium channels), operate by switching between closed and open conformations depending on the voltage difference across the membrane. In the open conformation they allow Na(+) ions to selectively pass through the pore, along their electrochemical gradient (PubMed:38381792, PubMed:40768348). The influx of Na(+) ions provokes membrane depolarization, initiating the propagation of electrical signals throughout cells and tissues (PubMed:15385606, PubMed:16988069, PubMed:17145499, PubMed:17167479, PubMed:19369487, PubMed:24311784, PubMed:25240195, PubMed:26680203, PubMed:7720699). Nav1.7 plays a crucial role in controlling the excitability and action potential propagation from nociceptor neurons, thereby contributing to the sensory perception of pain (PubMed:17145499, PubMed:17167479, PubMed:19369487, PubMed:24311784)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (16)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Caxon
- Caxon terminus
- Cnode of Ranvier
- Cplasma membrane
- Cvoltage-gated sodium channel complex
- Fvoltage-gated sodium channel activity
- Paction potential propagation
- Pcardiac muscle cell action potential involved in contraction
- Pcircadian rhythm
- Pdetection of mechanical stimulus involved in sensory perception
- Pdetection of temperature stimulus involved in sensory perception of pain
- Pmembrane depolarization during action potential
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Ion channel gating
- ·sodium ion transmembrane transport
View underlying pathways (3)Hide underlying pathways
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Interaction neighbourhood
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.
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.
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.
59 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 10 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.
Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker
Indicated for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker
Indicated for Bipolar Disorder, Depressive Disorder, Epilepsies, Partial, Epilepsy
Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker
Indicated for Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Arthritis, Back Pain, Inflammation
Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker
Indicated for Epilepsies, Partial, Epilepsy, Seizures
Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker
Indicated for Epilepsy, Migraine Disorders, Seizures
View all 10 targeting drugsHide
Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker
Indicated for Epilepsy, Seizures
Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker
Indicated for Epilepsies, Partial, Epilepsy, Seizures
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 SCN9A
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene SCN9Athat 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
79 compounds recorded · 59 approved · 16 in clinical development · 4 earlier-stage
View all recorded compounds (10)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.
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 5 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.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: ESLICARBAZEPINE ACETATE (ANDA216481)
- Supplemental approval
Supplemental approval: LACOSAMIDE (ANDA204921)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: TOPIRAMATE (ANDA220943)
- Product recall
Recall (Class III): TOPIRAMATE
- Regulatory approval
Approval: LACOSAMIDE (ANDA217596)
- Product recall
Recall (Class II): LACOSAMIDE
- Safety communication
Drug Safety Update: Topiramate (Topamax): introduction of new safety measures, including a Pregnancy Prevention Programme
- New publicationSafety and tolerability of short-term infusions of intravenous lacosamide in pediatric patients with epilepsy: An open-label, phase 2/3 trial.
- Safety communication
Drug Safety Update: Topiramate (Topamax): start of safety review triggered by a study reporting an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disabilities in children with prenatal exposure
- New publicationRiluzole, a glutamate modulator, slows cerebral glucose metabolism decline in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
- New publicationSafety and efficacy of adjunctive lacosamide in Chinese and Japanese adults with epilepsy and focal seizures: A long-term, open-label extension of a randomized, controlled trial.
- New publicationCanadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) and International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) 2018 guidelines for the management of patients with bipolar disorder.
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.