Protein / target
Interferon gamma
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Type II interferon receptor binding
Strongest disease association
Hypothyroidism
Therapeutic position
Established drug target
Research activity
Actively researched
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Type II interferon produced by immune cells such as T-cells and NK cells that plays crucial roles in antimicrobial, antiviral, and antitumor responses by activating effector immune cells and enhancing antigen presentation.
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Type II interferon produced by immune cells such as T-cells and NK cells that plays crucial roles in antimicrobial, antiviral, and antitumor responses by activating effector immune cells and enhancing antigen presentation (PubMed:16914093, PubMed:8666937). Primarily signals through the JAK-STAT pathway after interaction with its receptor IFNGR1 to affect gene regulation (PubMed:8349687). Upon IFNG binding, IFNGR1 intracellular domain opens out to allow association of downstream signaling components JAK2, JAK1 and STAT1, leading to STAT1 activation, nuclear translocation and transcription of IFNG-regulated genes. Many of the induced genes are transcription factors such as IRF1 that are able to further drive regulation of a next wave of transcription (PubMed:16914093). Plays a role in class I antigen presentation pathway by inducing a replacement of catalytic proteasome subunits with immunoproteasome subunits (PubMed:8666937). In turn, increases the quantity, quality, and repertoire of peptides for class I MHC loading (PubMed:8163024). Increases the efficiency of peptide generation also by inducing the expression of activator PA28 that associates with the proteasome and alters its proteolytic cleavage preference (PubMed:11112687). Up-regulates as well MHC II complexes on the cell surface by promoting expression of several key molecules such as cathepsins B/CTSB, H/CTSH, and L/CTSL (PubMed:7729559). Participates in the regulation of hematopoietic stem cells during development and under homeostatic conditions by affecting their development, quiescence, and differentiation (By similarity)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (63)Hide
Gene Ontology
- Cextracellular region
- Cextracellular space
- Fcytokine activity
- Ftype II interferon receptor binding
- Padaptive immune response
- Papoptotic process
- Pastrocyte activation
- Pcell surface receptor signaling pathway
- Pcell surface receptor signaling pathway via JAK-STAT
- Pcell surface receptor signaling pathway via STAT
- Pcellular response to virus
- Pdefense response to virus
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Cell proliferation & survival
- ·positive regulation of cell population proliferation
Cell migration
- ·positive regulation of epithelial cell migration
Immune signalling
- ·Type II interferon produced by immune cells such as T-cells and NK cells that plays cruc…
- ·cytokine activity
- ·adaptive immune response
- ·humoral immune response
Transcriptional regulation
- ·Type II interferon produced by immune cells such as T-cells and NK cells that plays cruc…
- ·negative regulation of DNA-templated transcription
- ·negative regulation of gene expression
- ·negative regulation of transcription by RNA polymerase II
Apoptosis & cell death
- ·apoptotic process
- ·positive regulation of smooth muscle cell apoptotic process
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
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 IFNG
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene IFNGthat 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.
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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
3 compounds recorded · 1 approved · 2 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (3)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 — Emerging
Antibodies — Strong
Protein degraders — Emerging
View underlying tractability evidence (7)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
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 “Interferons” — a broader family this protein belongs to. Shown as context; not counted as papers specifically about this protein.
via Interferons
via Interferons
via Interferons
via Interferons
via Interferons
via Interferons
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.