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Protein / target

Adiponectin

Encoded byADIPOQQ15848Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Antibody-tractable
Druggability
UniProt loc high conf
9
Research papers

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Protein serine/threonine kinase activator

Strongest disease association

Hearing Loss

Via encoding gene ADIPOQ · Genetic evidence · score 0.43

Research activity

Emerging research

9 papers · latest 2024

Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.

Protein profile

UniProt 2026_02

Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.

Function overview

Important adipokine involved in the control of fat metabolism and insulin sensitivity, with direct anti-diabetic, anti-atherogenic and anti-inflammatory activities.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Important adipokine involved in the control of fat metabolism and insulin sensitivity, with direct anti-diabetic, anti-atherogenic and anti-inflammatory activities. Stimulates AMPK phosphorylation and activation in the liver and the skeletal muscle, enhancing glucose utilization and fatty-acid combustion. Antagonizes TNF by negatively regulating its expression in various tissues such as liver and macrophages, and also by counteracting its effects. Inhibits endothelial NF-kappa-B signaling through a cAMP-dependent pathway. May play a role in cell growth, angiogenesis and tissue remodeling by binding and sequestering various growth factors with distinct binding affinities, depending on the type of complex, LMW, MMW or HMW

Subcellular location

Secreted
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (63)

Domains & features

Collagen-likeC1q

Gene Ontology

  • Ccell surface
  • Cendoplasmic reticulum
  • Cextracellular matrix
  • Cextracellular region
  • Cextracellular space
  • Fcytokine activity
  • Fhormone activity
  • Fprotein homodimerization activity
  • Fprotein serine/threonine kinase activator activity
  • Fsialic acid binding
  • Fsignaling receptor binding
  • Padiponectin-activated signaling pathway

244 aa · 26 kDa

Biological roles

What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.

Lipid & lipoprotein metabolismGOCell migrationGOSynaptic signallingGOGrowth-factor signallingGOImmune signallingGOKinase signallingGO
View supporting evidence

Lipid & lipoprotein metabolism

  • ·fatty acid beta-oxidation
  • ·fatty acid oxidation
  • ·low-density lipoprotein particle clearance
  • ·negative regulation of cholesterol import

Cell migration

  • ·negative regulation of cell migration
  • ·negative regulation of metanephric mesenchymal cell migration
  • ·negative regulation of vascular associated smooth muscle cell migration

Synaptic signalling

  • ·negative regulation of synaptic transmission

Growth-factor signalling

  • ·negative regulation of platelet-derived growth factor receptor signaling pathway

Immune signalling

  • ·cytokine activity
  • ·brown fat cell differentiation
  • ·negative regulation of fat cell differentiation
  • ·negative regulation of inflammatory response

Kinase signalling

  • ·protein serine/threonine kinase activator activity
  • ·negative regulation of MAP kinase activity

Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.

Translational evidence

Open Targets 26

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 ADIPOQ

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene ADIPOQthat 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.

Hearing Loss
0.44Limited support

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.26

Obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency
0.32Preliminary

Animal model evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.13 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Metabolic Syndrome
0.30Preliminary

Animal model evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.13 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Coronary Artery Disease
0.28Preliminary

Animal model evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.13 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Obesity disorder
0.27Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.13 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

View evidence synthesis (5)
Hearing LossLimited support
0.44
agreement 0.300.58
Genetic96%Literature4%

Open Targets aggregate 0.26 · 2 independent evidence families

Obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiencyPreliminary
0.32
agreement 0.140.50
Animal model58%Literature42%

Open Targets aggregate 0.13 · 2 independent evidence families · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Metabolic SyndromePreliminary
0.30
agreement 0.120.48
Animal model54%Literature46%

Open Targets aggregate 0.13 · 2 independent evidence families · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Coronary Artery DiseasePreliminary
0.28
agreement 0.100.46
Animal model52%Literature49%

Open Targets aggregate 0.13 · 2 independent evidence families · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Obesity disorderPreliminary
0.27
agreement 0.090.44
Literature51%Animal model49%

Open Targets aggregate 0.13 · 2 independent evidence families · no direct causal or clinical evidence

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.

Show all associations
Hearing Loss0.26
Obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency0.13
Metabolic Syndrome0.13
Coronary Artery Disease0.13
Obesity disorder0.13
Diabetes Mellitus0.12

Tractability

AntibodiesEmerging

Feasibility evidence (uniprot loc high conf and go cc high conf) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

View underlying tractability evidence (3)
AB · UniProt loc high confAB · GO CC high confAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMM

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Research activity

9 papers · to 2024

Papers linked directly to this protein. This is the protein's own literature — descriptor-derived papers are kept separate below.

Most cited

Kadowaki T · The Journal of clinical investigation · 2006

Kadowaki T · Endocrine reviews · 2005

Plows JF · International journal of molecular sciences · 2018

Recent

Europe PMC papers linked directly to this protein.