Protein / target
Apoptosis regulator Bcl-2
Protein at a glance
Biological role
DNA-binding transcription factor binding
Strongest disease association
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2
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
Suppresses apoptosis in a variety of cell systems including factor-dependent lymphohematopoietic and neural cells.
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Suppresses apoptosis in a variety of cell systems including factor-dependent lymphohematopoietic and neural cells (PubMed:1508712, PubMed:8183370). Regulates cell death by controlling the mitochondrial membrane permeability (PubMed:11368354). Appears to function in a feedback loop system with caspases (PubMed:11368354). Inhibits caspase activity either by preventing the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria and/or by binding to the apoptosis-activating factor (APAF-1) (PubMed:11368354). Also acts as an inhibitor of autophagy: interacts with BECN1 and AMBRA1 during non-starvation conditions and inhibits their autophagy function (PubMed:18570871, PubMed:20889974, PubMed:21358617). May attenuate inflammation by impairing NLRP1-inflammasome activation, hence CASP1 activation and IL1B release (PubMed:17418785)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (66)Hide
Gene Ontology
- CBcl-2 family protein complex
- Ccytoplasm
- Ccytosol
- Cendoplasmic reticulum
- Cendoplasmic reticulum membrane
- Cmembrane
- Cmitochondrial outer membrane
- Cmitochondrion
- Cmyelin sheath
- Cnuclear membrane
- Cnucleus
- Cpore complex
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Cell proliferation & survival
- ·positive regulation of cell population proliferation
Immune signalling
- ·B cell proliferation
- ·B cell receptor signaling pathway
- ·humoral immune response
- ·positive regulation of B cell proliferation
Apoptosis & cell death
- ·Suppresses apoptosis in a variety of cell systems including factor-dependent lymphohemat…
- ·apoptotic process
- ·negative regulation of apoptotic process
- ·negative regulation of neuron apoptotic process
Transcriptional regulation
- ·DNA-binding transcription factor binding
- ·Estrogen-dependent gene expression
View underlying pathways (8)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.
3 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 1 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.
Apoptosis regulator Bcl-2 inhibitor
Apoptosis regulator Bcl-2 inhibitor
Indicated for Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell, Neoplasms
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 BCL2
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene BCL2that 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
7 compounds recorded · 3 approved · 4 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (7)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
Other modalities — Strong
View underlying tractability evidence (11)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 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.
- Trial status changed
A Phase 2 Study of Venetoclax Monotherapy in Japanese Subjects With Relapsed or Refractory Waldenström Macroglobulinemia/Lymphoplasmacytic Lymphoma
- Trial status changed
Study of Cladribine+Venetoclax After Failure of Venetoclax+Hypomethylating Agent in Monocytic AML
- Trial status changed
Daratumumab Combined With Venetoclax and Dexamethasone for Newly Diagnosed Light-Chain Amyloidosis Patients With Translocation (11;14): A Multicenter Phase 2 Study
- Trial status changed
Phase 1b Study of Pembrolizumab, Decitabine +/- Venetoclax Combination Therapy in Patients With Relapsed or Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia or Myelodysplastic Syndrome
- Safety communication
Drug Safety Update: Venetoclax (Venclyxto▼): updated recommendations on tumour lysis syndrome (TLS)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Venclyxto (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.