Protein / target
Interleukin-6 receptor subunit alpha
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Ciliary neurotrophic factor binding
Strongest disease association
Coronary Artery Disease
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
Part of the receptor for interleukin 6.
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Part of the receptor for interleukin 6. Binds to IL6 with low affinity, but does not transduce a signal (PubMed:28265003). Signal activation necessitate an association with IL6ST. Activation leads to the regulation of the immune response, acute-phase reactions and hematopoiesis (PubMed:30995492, PubMed:31235509). The interaction with membrane-bound IL6R and IL6ST stimulates 'classic signaling', the restricted expression of the IL6R limits classic IL6 signaling to only a few tissues such as the liver and some cells of the immune system. Whereas the binding of IL6 and soluble IL6R to IL6ST stimulates 'trans-signaling'. Alternatively, 'cluster signaling' occurs when membrane-bound IL6:IL6R complexes on transmitter cells activate IL6ST receptors on neighboring receiver cells (Probable)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (47)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Capical plasma membrane
- Cciliary neurotrophic factor receptor complex
- Cexternal side of plasma membrane
- Cextracellular region
- Cextracellular space
- Cinterleukin-6 receptor complex
- Cplasma membrane
- Creceptor complex
- Fciliary neurotrophic factor binding
- Fcytokine receptor activity
- Fenzyme binding
- Finterleukin-11 binding
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Cell migration
- ·monocyte chemotaxis
- ·positive regulation of leukocyte chemotaxis
Cell proliferation & survival
- ·positive regulation of cell population proliferation
Immune signalling
- ·Part of the receptor for interleukin 6. Binds to IL6 with low affinity, but does not tra…
- ·interleukin-6 receptor complex
- ·cytokine receptor activity
- ·interleukin-11 binding
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.
4 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 3 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.
Interleukin-6 receptor alpha subunit inhibitor
Indicated for Arthritis, Juvenile, Arthritis, Rheumatoid, COVID-19, Cytokine Release Syndrome
Interleukin-6 receptor alpha subunit antagonist
Indicated for Arthritis, Rheumatoid, Immune System Diseases
IL6Ralpha/GP130 antagonist
Indicated for Immune System Diseases, Neuromyelitis Optica
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 IL6R
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene IL6Rthat 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
5 compounds recorded · 4 approved · 1 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (5)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
View underlying tractability evidence (6)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
Safety-related annotations
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
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 3 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 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
Satralizumab,an Anti-IL-6 Receptor Antibody, in the Treatment of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension; Safety and Efficacy Evaluation in Japan -Multicenter, Investigator-sponsored Trial-
- Supplemental approval
Supplemental approval: SATRALIZUMAB (BLA761149)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Tuyory (EMA)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Avtozma (EMA)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Tocilizumab STADA (previously Tofidence) (EMA)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Tyenne (EMA)
- New publicationSubcutaneous sarilumab for the treatment of hospitalized patients with moderate to severe COVID19 disease: A pragmatic, embedded randomized clinical trial.
- New publicationAssociation Between Administration of IL-6 Antagonists and Mortality Among Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19: A Meta-analysis.
- Safety communication
Drug Safety Update: Tocilizumab (RoActemra): rare risk of serious liver injury including cases requiring transplantation
- New publicationTisagenlecleucel in Children and Young Adults with B-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
- New publicationChimeric antigen receptor T cells for sustained remissions in leukemia.
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.