Protein / target
Toll-like receptor 7
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Pattern recognition receptor
Strongest disease association
Systemic lupus erythematosus 17
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
Endosomal receptor that plays a key role in innate and adaptive immunity.
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Endosomal receptor that plays a key role in innate and adaptive immunity (PubMed:14976261, PubMed:32433612). Controls host immune response against pathogens through recognition of uridine-containing single strand RNAs (ssRNAs) of viral origin or guanosine analogs (PubMed:12738885, PubMed:27742543, PubMed:31608988, PubMed:32706371, PubMed:35477763). Upon binding to agonists, undergoes dimerization that brings TIR domains from the two molecules into direct contact, leading to the recruitment of TIR-containing downstream adapter MYD88 through homotypic interaction (PubMed:27742543). In turn, the Myddosome signaling complex is formed involving IRAK4, IRAK1, TRAF6, TRAF3 leading to activation of downstream transcription factors NF-kappa-B and IRF7 to induce pro-inflammatory cytokines and interferons, respectively (PubMed:27742543, PubMed:32706371). In plasmacytoid dendritic cells, RNASET2 endonuclease cooperates with PLD3 or PLD4 5'->3' exonucleases to process RNA and release 2',3'-cyclic guanosine monophosphate (2',3'-cGMP) and cytidine-rich RNA fragments that occupy TLR7 ligand-binding pockets and trigger a signaling-competent state
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (36)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Ccytoplasm
- Cearly phagosome
- Cendolysosome membrane
- Cendoplasmic reticulum
- Cendoplasmic reticulum membrane
- Cendosome
- Cendosome membrane
- CGolgi membrane
- Clysosome
- Cplasma membrane
- Creceptor complex
- Fdouble-stranded RNA binding
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Immune signalling
- ·Endosomal receptor that plays a key role in innate and adaptive immunity (PubMed:1497626…
- ·inflammatory response
- ·innate immune response
- ·positive regulation of inflammatory response
Transcriptional regulation
- ·Endosomal receptor that plays a key role in innate and adaptive immunity (PubMed:1497626…
- ·positive regulation of transcription by RNA polymerase II
View underlying pathways (11)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.
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.
Toll-like receptor 7 agonist
Indicated for Keratosis, Actinic, Virus Diseases
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 TLR7
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene TLR7that 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
12 compounds recorded · 3 approved · 9 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 — Strong
Antibodies — Emerging
Protein degraders — Emerging
Other modalities — Strong
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.
- Label change
Label change: IMIQUIMOD (ANDA091308)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Zyclara (EMA)
- New publicationTopical TLR7 agonist imiquimod can induce immune-mediated rejection of skin metastases in patients with breast cancer.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: IMIQUIMOD (ANDA091308)
- New publicationEnhanced port-wine stain lightening achieved with combined treatment of selective photothermolysis and imiquimod.
- New publicationImiquimod-induced psoriasis-like skin inflammation in mice is mediated via the IL-23/IL-17 axis.
- New publicationImmunization of malignant melanoma patients with full-length NY-ESO-1 protein using TLR7 agonist imiquimod as vaccine adjuvant.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Aldara (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.