Protein / target
Programmed cell death 1 ligand 1
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Transcription coactivator
Strongest disease association
Neoplasms
Therapeutic position
Established drug target
Research activity
Extensively researched
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Plays a critical role in induction and maintenance of immune tolerance to self.
View complete UniProt function annotationHide complete annotation
Plays a critical role in induction and maintenance of immune tolerance to self (PubMed:11015443, PubMed:28813410, PubMed:28813417, PubMed:31399419). As a ligand for the inhibitory receptor PDCD1/PD-1, modulates the activation threshold of T-cells and limits T-cell effector response (PubMed:11015443, PubMed:28813410, PubMed:28813417, PubMed:36727298). Through a yet unknown activating receptor, may costimulate T-cell subsets that predominantly produce interleukin-10 (IL10) (PubMed:10581077). Can also act as a transcription coactivator: in response to hypoxia, translocates into the nucleus via its interaction with phosphorylated STAT3 and promotes transcription of GSDMC, leading to pyroptosis (PubMed:32929201)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (35)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Ccytosol
- Cearly endosome membrane
- Cendoplasmic reticulum membrane
- Cexternal side of plasma membrane
- Cextracellular exosome
- CGolgi membrane
- Cnuclear speck
- Cnucleoplasm
- Cplasma membrane
- Crecycling endosome membrane
- Freceptor ligand activity
- Ftranscription coactivator activity
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Immune signalling
- ·Plays a critical role in induction and maintenance of immune tolerance to self (PubMed:1…
- ·adaptive immune response
- ·immune response
- ·negative regulation of activated T cell proliferation
Transcriptional regulation
- ·Plays a critical role in induction and maintenance of immune tolerance to self (PubMed:1…
- ·transcription coactivator activity
View underlying pathways (7)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.
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 4 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.
Programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 inhibitor
Indicated for Breast Neoplasms, Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung, Carcinoma, Transitional Cell, Lung Neoplasms
Programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 inhibitor
Indicated for Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung, Small Cell Lung Carcinoma, Neoplasms
Programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 other
Indicated for Carcinoma, Merkel Cell, Carcinoma, Transitional Cell, Neuroendocrine Tumors, Neoplasms
Programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 binding agent
Indicated for Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung, Neoplasms
Programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 inhibitor
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 CD274
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene CD274that 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.
Show all associationsHide all associations
Drug development
13 compounds recorded · 5 approved · 8 in clinical development
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 — Emerging
Antibodies — Strong
Protein degraders — Emerging
Other modalities — Strong
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 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.
- Trial status changed
Phase I/II Study of Neoadjuvant Inhaled Azacytidine With Platinum-Based Chemotherapy and Durvalumab (MEDI4736) - a Combined Epigenetic-Immunotherapy (AZA-AEGEAN) Regimen for Operable Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)
- Trial results posted
A Safety Run-In and Phase II Study Evaluating the Efficacy, Safety, and Impact on the Tumor Microenvironment of the Combination of Tocilizumab, Atezolizumab, and Fractionated Stereotactic Radiotherapy in Recurrent Glioblastoma
- Trial status changed
A Phase IIIb Study of Durvalumab as Consolidation Treatment for Patients Diagnosed With Limited Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer Who Have Not Progressed Following Definitive Concurrent or Sequential Platinum-based Chemoradiation Therapy in Spain (ALBORAN).
- Trial results posted
A Phase II Trial of Atezolizumab Plus Induction Chemotherapy (CT) Plus Chemo-radiotherapy and Atezolizumab Maintenance Therapy in Non-resectable Stage IIIA-IIIB Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Patients
- New publicationEarly ctDNA and Survival in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Treated With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: A Secondary Analysis of the SAMCO-PRODIGE 54 Randomized Clinical Trial.
- New publicationAutogene cevumeran with or without atezolizumab in advanced solid tumors: a phase 1 trial.
- New publicationPlasma versus Tissue Tumor Mutational Burden as Biomarkers of Durvalumab plus Tremelimumab Response in Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer in the CO.26 Trial.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Cejemly (EMA)
- New publicationCONTACT-01: A Randomized Phase III Trial of Atezolizumab + Cabozantinib Versus Docetaxel for Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer After a Checkpoint Inhibitor and Chemotherapy.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Imfinzi (EMA)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Tecentriq (EMA)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Bavencio (EMA)
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.
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.