Protein / target
Plasminogen
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Serine-type endopeptidase
Strongest disease association
Angioedemas, Hereditary
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
Protease which primary function is to degrade fibrin, the main component of blood clots.
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Protease which primary function is to degrade fibrin, the main component of blood clots (PubMed:6094526, PubMed:6919539). Also cleaves other components of blood clots like thrombospondin-1/THBS1 and von Willebrand factor/VWF (PubMed:24449821, PubMed:7679575). Can also directly and/or through the activation of other proteases degrade the various components of the extracellular matrix including collagen, fibronectin and laminin (PubMed:14699093, PubMed:28849762, PubMed:9171346). Thereby, regulates a variety of biological processes including embryonic development, tissue remodeling, and inflammation (PubMed:9171346). In ovulation, weakens the walls of the Graafian follicle (By similarity). In vitro, it is also able to cleave several complement zymogens, such as C1, C4 and C5 (PubMed:6447255)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (42)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Cblood microparticle
- Ccell surface
- Cexternal side of plasma membrane
- Cextracellular exosome
- Cextracellular matrix
- Cextracellular region
- Cextracellular space
- Cglutamatergic synapse
- Cplasma membrane
- Cplatelet alpha granule lumen
- CSchaffer collateral - CA1 synapse
- Fapolipoprotein binding
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Synaptic signalling
- ·glutamatergic synapse
- ·Schaffer collateral - CA1 synapse
- ·trans-synaptic signaling by BDNF, modulating synaptic transmission
Cell migration
- ·positive regulation of blood vessel endothelial cell migration
Cell adhesion
- ·Protease which primary function is to degrade fibrin, the main component of blood clots…
- ·extracellular matrix
- ·extracellular matrix disassembly
- ·negative regulation of cell-cell adhesion mediated by cadherin
Proteolysis
- ·Protease which primary function is to degrade fibrin, the main component of blood clots…
- ·endopeptidase activity
- ·protease binding
- ·serine-type endopeptidase activity
Haemostasis
- ·Protease which primary function is to degrade fibrin, the main component of blood clots…
- ·platelet alpha granule lumen
- ·blood coagulation
- ·fibrinolysis
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
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.
Plasminogen activator
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 PLG
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene PLG that 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
9 compounds recorded · 7 approved · 2 in clinical development
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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.
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 (16)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: Defitelio (EMA)
- New publicationMulti-institutional use of defibrotide in 88 patients after stem cell transplantation with severe veno-occlusive disease and multisystem organ failure: response without significant toxicity in a high-risk population and factors predictive of outcome.
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 “Serine Proteases” — a broader family this protein belongs to. Shown as context; not counted as papers specifically about this protein.
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.