Protein / target
Retinoic acid receptor RXR-alpha
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Sequence-specific double-stranded DNA binding
Strongest disease association
Psoriasis
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
Receptor for retinoic acid that acts as a transcription factor.
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Receptor for retinoic acid that acts as a transcription factor (PubMed:10874028, PubMed:11162439, PubMed:11915042, PubMed:37478846). Forms homo- or heterodimers with retinoic acid receptors (RARs) and binds to target response elements in response to their ligands, all-trans or 9-cis retinoic acid, to regulate gene expression in various biological processes (PubMed:10195690, PubMed:11162439, PubMed:11915042, PubMed:16107141, PubMed:17761950, PubMed:18800767, PubMed:19167885, PubMed:28167758, PubMed:37478846). The RAR/RXR heterodimers bind to the retinoic acid response elements (RARE) composed of tandem 5'-AGGTCA-3' sites known as DR1-DR5 to regulate transcription (PubMed:10195690, PubMed:11162439, PubMed:11915042, PubMed:17761950, PubMed:28167758). The high affinity ligand for retinoid X receptors (RXRs) is 9-cis retinoic acid (PubMed:1310260). In the absence of ligand, the RXR-RAR heterodimers associate with a multiprotein complex containing transcription corepressors that induce histone deacetylation, chromatin condensation and transcriptional suppression (PubMed:20215566). On ligand binding, the corepressors dissociate from the receptors and coactivators are recruited leading to transcriptional activation (PubMed:20215566, PubMed:37478846, PubMed:9267036). Serves as a common heterodimeric partner for a number of nuclear receptors, such as RARA, RARB and PPARA (PubMed:10195690, PubMed:11915042, PubMed:28167758, PubMed:29021580). The RXRA/RARB heterodimer can act as a transcriptional repressor or transcriptional activator, depending on the RARE DNA element context (PubMed:29021580). The RXRA/PPARA heterodimer is required for PPARA transcriptional activity on fatty acid oxidation genes such as ACOX1 and the P450 system genes (PubMed:10195690). Together with RARA, positively regulates microRNA-10a expression, thereby inhibiting the GATA6/VCAM1 signaling response to pulsatile shear stress in vascular endothelial cells (PubMed:28167758). Acts as an enhancer of RARA binding to RARE DNA element (PubMed:28167758). May facilitate the nuclear import of heterodimerization partners such as VDR and NR4A1 (PubMed:12145331, PubMed:15509776). Promotes myelin debris phagocytosis and remyelination by macrophages (PubMed:26463675). Plays a role in the attenuation of the innate immune system in response to viral infections, possibly by negatively regulating the transcription of antiviral genes such as type I IFN genes (PubMed:25417649). Involved in the regulation of calcium signaling by repressing ITPR2 gene expression, thereby controlling cellular senescence (PubMed:30216632)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (50)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Cchromatin
- Ccytosol
- Cmitochondrion
- Cnucleoplasm
- Cnucleus
- Creceptor complex
- CRNA polymerase II transcription regulator complex
- FDNA binding domain binding
- FDNA-binding transcription factor activity
- FDNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
- Fdouble-stranded DNA binding
- Fenzyme binding
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Lipid & lipoprotein metabolism
- ·Receptor for retinoic acid that acts as a transcription factor (PubMed:10874028, PubMed:…
- ·cellular response to low-density lipoprotein particle stimulus
- ·positive regulation of cholesterol efflux
- ·positive regulation of lipid metabolic process
Nuclear receptor signalling
- ·Receptor for retinoic acid that acts as a transcription factor (PubMed:10874028, PubMed:…
- ·nuclear receptor activity
Transcriptional regulation
- ·Receptor for retinoic acid that acts as a transcription factor (PubMed:10874028, PubMed:…
- ·RNA polymerase II transcription regulator complex
- ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity
- ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
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 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.
Retinoid X receptor agonist
Indicated for Lymphoma, T-Cell, Lymphoma, T-Cell, Cutaneous, 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 RXRA
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene RXRAthat 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
8 compounds recorded · 5 approved · 3 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (8)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
Protein degraders — Emerging
View underlying tractability evidence (8)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.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Targretin (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.
Related family literature
Papers about “Retinoid X Receptors” — a broader family this protein belongs to. Shown as context; not counted as papers specifically about this protein.
via Retinoid X Receptors
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.