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Protein / target

Vascular cell adhesion protein 1

Encoded byVCAM1P19320Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
UniProt: P19320Ensembl: ENSG00000162692HGNC: HGNC:12663NCBI Gene: 7412
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Med-Quality Pocket
1
Research papers

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Primary methylamine oxidase

Strongest disease association

Glaucoma, Open-Angle

Via encoding gene VCAM1 · Genetic evidence · score 0.55

Research activity

Emerging research

1 papers · latest 2023

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

Cell adhesion glycoprotein predominantly expressed on the surface of endothelial cells that plays an important role in immune surveillance and inflammation.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Cell adhesion glycoprotein predominantly expressed on the surface of endothelial cells that plays an important role in immune surveillance and inflammation (PubMed:31310649). Acts as a major regulator of leukocyte adhesion to the endothelium through interaction with different types of integrins (PubMed:10209034). During inflammatory responses, binds ligands on the surface of activated endothelial cells to initiate the activation of calcium channels and the plasma membrane-associated small GTPase RAC1 leading to leukocyte transendothelial migration (PubMed:22970700). Also serves as a quality-control checkpoint for entry into bone marrow by providing a 'don't-eat-me' stamping in the context of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class-I presentation (PubMed:35210567)

Subcellular location

Cell membraneSecreted
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (51)

Domains & features

Ig-like C2-type 1Ig-like C2-type 2Ig-like C2-type 3Ig-like C2-type 4Ig-like C2-type 5Ig-like C2-type 6Ig-like C2-type 7

Gene Ontology

  • Calpha9-beta1 integrin-vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 complex
  • Capical part of cell
  • Ccell surface
  • Cearly endosome
  • Cendoplasmic reticulum
  • Cexternal side of plasma membrane
  • Cextracellular exosome
  • Cextracellular space
  • Cfilopodium
  • CGolgi apparatus
  • Cmicrovillus
  • Cplasma membrane

739 aa · 81 kDa · 3 isoforms

Biological roles

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

Cell migrationGOImmune signallingUniProt · GOCell adhesionUniProt · GO
View supporting evidence

Cell migration

  • ·cell chemotaxis

Immune signalling

  • ·Cell adhesion glycoprotein predominantly expressed on the surface of endothelial cells t…
  • ·B cell differentiation
  • ·chronic inflammatory response
  • ·inflammatory response

Cell adhesion

  • ·Cell adhesion glycoprotein predominantly expressed on the surface of endothelial cells t…
  • ·alpha9-beta1 integrin-vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 complex
  • ·cell adhesion mediator activity
  • ·cell adhesion molecule binding

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 VCAM1

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene VCAM1 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.

Glaucoma, Open-Angle
0.56Moderately supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.34

Glaucoma
0.48Limited support

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.29

Crohn's Disease
0.36Limited support

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.21

Neurodegenerative Diseases
0.26Preliminary

Pathway evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.37 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Arthritis, Rheumatoid
0.15Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.11 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

View evidence synthesis (5)
Glaucoma, Open-AngleModerately supported
0.56
agreement 0.42–0.70
Genetic97%Literature3%

Open Targets aggregate 0.34 · 2 independent evidence families

GlaucomaLimited support
0.48
agreement 0.34–0.62
Genetic92%Literature8%

Open Targets aggregate 0.29 · 2 independent evidence families

Crohn's DiseaseLimited support
0.36
agreement 0.24–0.49
Genetic93%Literature6%RNA expression2%

Open Targets aggregate 0.21 · 3 independent evidence families

Neurodegenerative DiseasesPreliminary
0.26
agreement 0.08–0.43
Pathway93%Literature7%

Open Targets aggregate 0.37 · 2 independent evidence families · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Arthritis, RheumatoidPreliminary
0.15
agreement 0.00–0.34
Literature83%RNA expression17%

Open Targets aggregate 0.11 · 2 independent evidence families · no direct causal or clinical evidence

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.

Show all associations
Neurodegenerative Diseases0.37
Glaucoma, Open-Angle0.34
Glaucoma0.29
Crohn's Disease0.21
Neoplasms0.12
Arthritis, Rheumatoid0.11
Diabetes Mellitus0.11
Alzheimer's Disease0.11
Osteosarcoma0.10
Stroke0.10

Tractability

Small molecules — Emerging

Feasibility evidence (med-quality pocket and druggable family) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

Antibodies — Emerging

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

Protein degraders — Emerging

Feasibility evidence (uniprot ubiquitination and half-life data) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

View underlying tractability evidence (8)
SM · Med-Quality PocketSM · Druggable FamilyAB · UniProt loc high confAB · GO CC high confAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMMPR · UniProt UbiquitinationPR · Half-life DataPR · Small Molecule Binder

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Safety-related annotations

regulation of gene expressionToxCast

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.

Research activity

1 papers · to 2023

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

Most cited

Beyond the Scale: Investigating Adiponectin, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1 as Metabolic Markers in Obese Adolescents with Metabolic Syndrome.5 cites

Widjaja NA · Journal of obesity · 2023

Recent

Beyond the Scale: Investigating Adiponectin, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1 as Metabolic Markers in Obese Adolescents with Metabolic Syndrome.

Widjaja NA · Journal of obesity · 2023

Europe PMC papers linked directly to this protein.