Protein / target
Ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase 7
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Cysteine-type deubiquitinase
Strongest disease association
Genetic Diseases, Inborn
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
Hydrolase that deubiquitinates target proteins such as ARMC5, FOXO4, DEPTOR, KAT5, p53/TP53, MDM2, ERCC6, DNMT1, UHRF1, PTEN, KMT2E/MLL5 and DAXX.
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Hydrolase that deubiquitinates target proteins such as ARMC5, FOXO4, DEPTOR, KAT5, p53/TP53, MDM2, ERCC6, DNMT1, UHRF1, PTEN, KMT2E/MLL5 and DAXX (PubMed:11923872, PubMed:15053880, PubMed:16964248, PubMed:18716620, PubMed:25283148, PubMed:25865756, PubMed:26678539, PubMed:28655758, PubMed:33544460, PubMed:35216969). Together with DAXX, prevents MDM2 self-ubiquitination and enhances the E3 ligase activity of MDM2 towards p53/TP53, thereby promoting p53/TP53 ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation (PubMed:15053880, PubMed:16845383, PubMed:18566590, PubMed:20153724). Deubiquitinates p53/TP53, preventing degradation of p53/TP53, and enhances p53/TP53-dependent transcription regulation, cell growth repression and apoptosis (PubMed:25283148). Deubiquitinates p53/TP53 and MDM2 and strongly stabilizes p53/TP53 even in the presence of excess MDM2, and also induces p53/TP53-dependent cell growth repression and apoptosis (PubMed:11923872, PubMed:26786098). Deubiquitination of FOXO4 in presence of hydrogen peroxide is not dependent on p53/TP53 and inhibits FOXO4-induced transcriptional activity (PubMed:16964248). In association with DAXX, is involved in the deubiquitination and translocation of PTEN from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, both processes that are counteracted by PML (PubMed:18716620). Deubiquitinates KMT2E/MLL5 preventing KMT2E/MLL5 proteasomal-mediated degradation (PubMed:26678539). Involved in cell proliferation during early embryonic development. Involved in transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair (TC-NER) in response to UV damage: recruited to DNA damage sites following interaction with KIAA1530/UVSSA and promotes deubiquitination of ERCC6, preventing UV-induced degradation of ERCC6 (PubMed:22466611, PubMed:22466612). Involved in maintenance of DNA methylation via its interaction with UHRF1 and DNMT1: acts by mediating deubiquitination of UHRF1 and DNMT1, preventing their degradation and promoting DNA methylation by DNMT1 (PubMed:21745816, PubMed:22411829). Deubiquitinates alkylation repair enzyme ALKBH3. OTUD4 recruits USP7 and USP9X to stabilize ALKBH3, thereby promoting the repair of alkylated DNA lesions (PubMed:25944111). Acts as a chromatin regulator via its association with the Polycomb group (PcG) multiprotein PRC1-like complex; may act by deubiquitinating components of the PRC1-like complex (PubMed:20601937). Able to mediate deubiquitination of histone H2B; it is however unsure whether this activity takes place in vivo (PubMed:20601937). Exhibits a preference towards 'Lys-48'-linked ubiquitin chains (PubMed:22689415). Increases regulatory T-cells (Treg) suppressive capacity by deubiquitinating and stabilizing the transcription factor FOXP3 which is crucial for Treg cell function (PubMed:23973222). Plays a role in the maintenance of the circadian clock periodicity via deubiquitination and stabilization of the CRY1 and CRY2 proteins (PubMed:27123980). Deubiquitinates REST, thereby stabilizing REST and promoting the maintenance of neural progenitor cells (PubMed:21258371). Deubiquitinates SIRT7, inhibiting SIRT7 histone deacetylase activity and regulating gluconeogenesis (PubMed:28655758). Involved in the regulation of WASH-dependent actin polymerization at the surface of endosomes and the regulation of endosomal protein recycling (PubMed:26365382). It maintains optimal WASH complex activity and precise F-actin levels via deubiquitination of TRIM27 and WASHC1 (PubMed:26365382). Mediates the deubiquitination of phosphorylated DEPTOR, promoting its stability and leading to decreased mTORC1 signaling (PubMed:35216969). Deubiquitinates H2AB1, H2BC4 and H2BC22 (By similarity)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (35)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Cchromosome
- Ccytosol
- Cnuclear body
- Cnucleoplasm
- Cnucleus
- CPML body
- Cprotein-containing complex
- Fcysteine-type deubiquitinase activity
- Fcysteine-type endopeptidase activity
- Fdeubiquitinase activity
- FK48-linked deubiquitinase activity
- Fp53 binding
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Transcriptional regulation
- ·Hydrolase that deubiquitinates target proteins such as ARMC5, FOXO4, DEPTOR, KAT5, p53/T…
- ·negative regulation of gene expression via chromosomal CpG island methylation
- ·transcription-coupled nucleotide-excision repair
Immune signalling
- ·Hydrolase that deubiquitinates target proteins such as ARMC5, FOXO4, DEPTOR, KAT5, p53/T…
- ·antiviral innate immune response
Proteolysis
- ·cysteine-type endopeptidase activity
- ·proteolysis
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 USP7
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene USP7 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
This ranking differs from Open Targets' own: re-weighting moves genetically-evidenced diseases above more heavily co-mentioned ones. 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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Tractability
Small molecules — Emerging
Protein degraders — Emerging
View underlying tractability evidence (8)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.