Protein / target
Prostaglandin E2 receptor EP4 subtype
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Prostaglandin E receptor
Strongest disease association
Gastric carcinoma
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
Receptor for prostaglandin E2 (PGE2).
View complete UniProt function annotationHide complete annotation
Receptor for prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). The activity of this receptor is mediated by G(s) proteins that stimulate adenylate cyclase. Has a relaxing effect on smooth muscle. May play an important role in regulating renal hemodynamics, intestinal epithelial transport, adrenal aldosterone secretion, and uterine function
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (24)Hide
Gene Ontology
- Cmembrane
- Cplasma membrane
- Fprostaglandin E receptor activity
- Padenylate cyclase-activating G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway
- Padenylate cyclase-inhibiting G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway
- Padenylate cyclase-modulating G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway
- Pbone development
- Pcellular response to mechanical stimulus
- Pcellular response to prostaglandin E stimulus
- PERK1 and ERK2 cascade
- Pimmune response
- Pinflammatory response
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Immune signalling
- ·immune response
- ·inflammatory response
- ·negative regulation of cytokine production
- ·negative regulation of inflammatory response
G protein-coupled signalling
- ·adenylate cyclase-activating G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway
- ·adenylate cyclase-inhibiting G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway
- ·adenylate cyclase-modulating G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway
View underlying pathways (2)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.
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.
Prostaglandin E2 receptor agonist
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 PTGER4
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene PTGER4that 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
4 compounds recorded · 1 approved · 3 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (4)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 (9)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 a drug that targets 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.
- New publicationProstaglandin E<sub>2</sub>-EP2/EP4 signaling induces immunosuppression in human cancer by impairing bioenergetics and ribosome biogenesis in immune cells.
- New publicationThe antioxidant N-acetyl cysteine inhibits cytokine and prostaglandin release in human fetal membranes stimulated ex vivo with lipoteichoic acid or live group B streptococcus.
- New publicationPro-tumor Tfh2 cells induce detrimental IgG4 production and PGE<sub>2</sub>-dependent IgE inhibition in pancreatic cancer.
- New publicationPrimary hypertrophic osteoarthropathy: genetics, clinical features and management.
- New publicationUpdate on the pathological roles of prostaglandin E<sub>2</sub> in neurodegeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
- New publicationTipping the immunostimulatory and inhibitory DAMP balance to harness immunogenic cell death.
- New publicationT cell interleukin-17 induces stromal cells to produce proinflammatory and hematopoietic cytokines.
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.
Related family literature
Papers about “Receptors, Prostaglandin” — a broader family this protein belongs to. Shown as context; not counted as papers specifically about this protein.
via Receptors, Prostaglandin
Europe PMC literature, reached through curated HGNC family membership. Membership is a taxonomic relationship — it does not imply this protein participates in every mechanism these papers discuss.