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Protein / target

Sodium channel protein type 10 subunit alpha

Encoded bySCN10AQ9Y5Y9Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Clinically validated
Therapeutic maturity
60
Approved medicines
Open Targets target-level
View by indication →
30
Clinical trials
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Approved Drug

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Voltage-gated sodium channel

Strongest disease association

Sodium channelopathy-related small fiber neuropathy

Via encoding gene SCN10A · Genetic literature evidence · score 0.87

Therapeutic position

Established drug target

Small molecules

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

Tetrodotoxin-resistant channel that mediates the voltage-dependent sodium ion permeability of excitable membranes.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Tetrodotoxin-resistant channel that mediates the voltage-dependent sodium ion permeability of excitable membranes. Assuming opened or closed conformations in response to the voltage difference across the membrane, the protein forms a sodium-selective channel through which sodium ions may pass in accordance with their electrochemical gradient. Plays a role in neuropathic pain mechanisms

Subcellular location

Cell membrane
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (22)

Domains & features

IQ

Gene Ontology

  • Caxon
  • Cclathrin complex
  • Cextracellular exosome
  • Cglutamatergic synapse
  • Cplasma membrane
  • Cpresynaptic membrane
  • Cvoltage-gated sodium channel complex
  • Ftransmembrane transporter binding
  • Fvoltage-gated monoatomic ion channel activity involved in regulation of presynaptic membrane potential
  • Fvoltage-gated sodium channel activity
  • PAV node cell action potential
  • Pbundle of His cell action potential

1956 aa · 221 kDa

Biological roles

Reactome v97

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

Synaptic signallingGOIon channel gatingGO
View supporting evidence

Synaptic signalling

  • ·glutamatergic synapse
  • ·presynaptic membrane
  • ·voltage-gated monoatomic ion channel activity involved in regulation of presynaptic memb…

Ion channel gating

  • ·voltage-gated monoatomic ion channel activity involved in regulation of presynaptic memb…
  • ·regulation of monoatomic ion transmembrane transport
  • ·sodium ion transmembrane transport
View underlying pathways (2)

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.

SCN1BSCN2BSCN4BSCN3BSCLT1TRPM4SCN5AS100A10ANXA2ANK3SCN10A

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.

Approved medicines with mapped indications

10 medicines · 16 areas

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.

Epilepsies, Partial3 medicines
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis1 medicine
Arrhythmias, Cardiac1 medicine
Arthritis1 medicine
Back Pain1 medicine
Bipolar Disorder1 medicine
Depressive Disorder1 medicine
Inflammation1 medicine
Migraine Disorders1 medicine
Neuralgia1 medicine
Neuralgia, Postherpetic1 medicine
Osteoarthritis1 medicine
Pain1 medicine
Pruritus1 medicine

60 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

10

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.

Riluzole
ApprovedBlocker

Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker

Indicated for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Acts on a complex — shared with SCN5A, SCN4A, SCN7A +6 more · 1 of 10 recorded protein targets — broad pharmacology

lamotrigine
ApprovedBlocker

Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker

Indicated for Bipolar Disorder, Depressive Disorder, Epilepsies, Partial, Epilepsy

Acts on a complex — shared with SCN5A, SCN4A, SCN7A +6 more · 1 of 10 recorded protein targets — broad pharmacology

lidocaine
ApprovedBlocker

Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker

Indicated for Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Arthritis, Back Pain, Inflammation

Acts on a complex — shared with SCN5A, SCN4A, SCN7A +6 more · 1 of 10 recorded protein targets — broad pharmacology

lacosamide
ApprovedBlocker

Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker

Indicated for Epilepsies, Partial, Epilepsy, Seizures

Acts on a complex — shared with SCN5A, SCN4A, SCN7A +6 more · 1 of 10 recorded protein targets — broad pharmacology

phenytoin
ApprovedBlocker

Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker

Indicated for Epilepsy, Seizures

Acts on a complex — shared with SCN5A, SCN4A, SCN7A +6 more · 1 of 10 recorded protein targets — broad pharmacology

topiramate
ApprovedBlocker

Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker

Indicated for Epilepsy, Migraine Disorders, Seizures

Acts on a complex — shared with SCN5A, SCN4A, SCN7A +6 more · 1 of 37 recorded protein targets — broad pharmacology

View all 10 targeting drugs
cenobamate
ApprovedInhibitor

Sodium channel alpha subunit inhibitor

Indicated for Epilepsy, Seizures

Acts on a complex — shared with SCN5A, SCN4A, SCN7A +6 more · 1 of 26 recorded protein targets — broad pharmacology

Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker

Indicated for Epilepsy, Seizures

Acts on a complex — shared with SCN5A, SCN4A, SCN7A +6 more · 1 of 10 recorded protein targets — broad pharmacology

rufinamide
ApprovedBlocker

Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker

Indicated for Epilepsy, Seizures

Acts on a complex — shared with SCN5A, SCN4A, SCN7A +6 more · 1 of 10 recorded protein targets — broad pharmacology

zonisamide
ApprovedBlocker

Sodium channel alpha subunit blocker

Indicated for Epilepsies, Partial, Epilepsy, Seizures

Acts on a complex — shared with SCN5A, SCN4A, SCN7A +6 more · 1 of 10 recorded protein targets — broad pharmacology

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

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 SCN10A

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene SCN10A that 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.

Atrial Fibrillation
0.96Well supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.71

Arrhythmias, Cardiac
0.91Well supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.68

Episodic pain syndrome, familial, 2
0.79Well supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.72

Epilepsy
0.75Well supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.61

Major depressive disorder
0.74Moderately supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.60

View evidence synthesis (5)
Atrial FibrillationWell supported
0.96
agreement 0.851.00
Genetic50%Clinical43%Literature7%

Open Targets aggregate 0.71 · 3 independent evidence families

Arrhythmias, CardiacWell supported
0.91
agreement 0.801.00
Clinical52%Genetic47%Literature2%

Open Targets aggregate 0.68 · 3 independent evidence families

Episodic pain syndrome, familial, 2Well supported
0.79
agreement 0.670.91
Genetic84%Animal model15%Literature1%Genetic literaturedup

Open Targets aggregate 0.72 · 3 independent evidence families · 1 not counted as duplicate

EpilepsyWell supported
0.75
agreement 0.600.91
Clinical98%Literature2%

Open Targets aggregate 0.61 · 2 independent evidence families

Major depressive disorderModerately supported
0.74
agreement 0.580.89
Clinical99%Literature1%

Open Targets aggregate 0.60 · 2 independent evidence families

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.

Show all associations
Episodic pain syndrome, familial, 20.72
Atrial Fibrillation0.71
Arrhythmias, Cardiac0.68
Sodium channelopathy-related small fiber neuropathy0.63
Epilepsy0.61
Major depressive disorder0.60
Migraine Disorders0.60

Drug development

76 compounds recorded · 60 approved · 12 in clinical development · 4 earlier-stage

Open Targets' development universe — every compound recorded against the target at any stage, not all approved medicines. Distinct from the 10 drugs that target this protein in Forefront's canonical graph (10 with a mapped approved indication, shown above): these count different sets and are not a subset relation.

View all recorded compounds (10)
NKTR-171Ind
TETRACAINEApproval
DRONEDARONE HYDROCHLORIDEApproval
PROCAINEApproval
BENOXINATEApproval
ROPIVACAINEApproval
CENOBAMATEApproval
CHLOROPROCAINEApproval
MEPHENYTOINApproval
ETHOTOINApproval

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 moleculesStrong

Approved Drug and Structure with Ligand support this modality.

AntibodiesEmerging

Feasibility evidence (go cc high conf and uniprot loc med conf) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

Protein degradersEmerging

Feasibility evidence (uniprot ubiquitination and database ubiquitination) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

View underlying tractability evidence (10)
SM · Approved DrugSM · Structure with LigandSM · High-Quality LigandSM · Druggable FamilyAB · GO CC high confAB · UniProt loc med confAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMMPR · UniProt UbiquitinationPR · Database UbiquitinationPR · Small Molecule Binder

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Safety-related annotations

gastrointestinal toxicityClinPGx

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.

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. Ranked by active status, then clinical phase and recency, and spread across the targeting drugs.

View all trials (26)

COMPLETED · via lidocaine · NCT05670236

UNKNOWN · via topiramate · NCT06089356

ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.

What's happening now

12

Recent therapeutic activity around this target — regulatory actions, clinical trials and safety signals for 4 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.

  1. Regulatory approval2026-09-04

    Approval: TOPIRAMATE (ANDA219183)

    fda · regulatory · fda · via topiramate

  2. Product recall2026-08-31

    Recall (Class III): TOPIRAMATE

    fda · safety · fda · via topiramate

  3. Trial status changed2026-08-07

    A Comparison Between the Effect of Ketamine-lidocaine Versus Ketamine-fentanyl for Induction of Anesthesia on Cerebral Perfusion Guided by Near Infra-red Spectroscopy in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease and Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction Undergoing Elective Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery: (A Randomized Controlled Study)

    Status changed to Completed · ClinicalTrials.gov · via lidocaine

  4. Regulatory approval2026-08-05

    Approval: ESLICARBAZEPINE ACETATE (ANDA216481)

    fda · regulatory · fda · via eslicarbazepine acetate

  5. Trial status changed2026-07-30

    Nebulized Dexmedetomidine or Lidocaine for Treatment of Post Dural Puncture Headache in Parturients Undergoing Elective Cesarean Section Under Spinal Anesthesia: A Randomized Bicentric Study

    Status changed to Completed · ClinicalTrials.gov · via lidocaine

  6. Regulatory approval2026-07-22

    Approval: TOPIRAMATE (ANDA220943)

    fda · regulatory · fda · via topiramate

  7. Trial status changed2026-07-21

    A Randomized Double-Blind Trial Comparing Lidocaine and Dexmedetomidine Infusion and Their Combination on Perioperative Pain in Patients Undergoing Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery

    Status changed to Completed · ClinicalTrials.gov · via lidocaine

  8. Product recall2026-07-06

    Recall (Class III): TOPIRAMATE

    fda · safety · fda · via topiramate

  9. Regulatory approval2026-06-15

    Approval: LACOSAMIDE (ANDA217596)

    fda · regulatory · fda · via lacosamide

  10. Product recall2026-06-04

    Recall (Class II): LACOSAMIDE

    fda · safety · fda · via lacosamide

  11. Safety communication2024-06-20

    Drug Safety Update: Topiramate (Topamax): introduction of new safety measures, including a Pregnancy Prevention Programme

    mhra · safety · mhra · via topiramate

  12. New publication2023-01-18
    Safety and tolerability of short-term infusions of intravenous lacosamide in pediatric patients with epilepsy: An open-label, phase 2/3 trial.

    Epilepsia open · 2023 · 3 citations · Europe PMC · via lacosamide

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.