Protein / target
Polyunsaturated fatty acid lipoxygenase ALOX12
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Arachidonate 12(S)-lipoxygenase
Strongest disease association
Venous Thromboembolism
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
Catalyzes the regio and stereo-specific incorporation of molecular oxygen into free and esterified polyunsaturated fatty acids generating lipid hydroperoxides that can be further reduced to the corresponding hydroxy species.
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Catalyzes the regio and stereo-specific incorporation of molecular oxygen into free and esterified polyunsaturated fatty acids generating lipid hydroperoxides that can be further reduced to the corresponding hydroxy species (PubMed:17493578, PubMed:18311922, PubMed:1851637, PubMed:32404334, PubMed:8319693, PubMed:8500694). Mainly converts arachidonate ((5Z,8Z,11Z,14Z)-eicosatetraenoate) to the specific bioactive lipid (12S)-hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoate/(12S)-HPETE (PubMed:17493578, PubMed:22984144, PubMed:24282679, PubMed:8319693, PubMed:8500694). Through the production of bioactive lipids like (12S)-HPETE it regulates different biological processes including platelet activation (PubMed:8319693, PubMed:8500694). It can also catalyze the epoxidation of double bonds of polyunsaturated fatty acids such as (14S)-hydroperoxy-docosahexaenoate/(14S)-HPDHA resulting in the formation of (13S,14S)-epoxy-DHA (PubMed:23504711). Furthermore, it may participate in the sequential oxidations of DHA ((4Z,7Z,10Z,13Z,16Z,19Z)-docosahexaenoate) to generate specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs) like resolvin D5 ((7S,17S)-diHPDHA) and (7S,14S)-diHPDHA, that actively down-regulate the immune response and have anti-aggregation properties with platelets (PubMed:32404334). An additional function involves a multistep process by which it transforms leukotriene A4/LTA4 into the bioactive lipids lipoxin A4/LXA4 and lipoxin B4/LXB4, both are vasoactive and LXA4 may regulate neutrophil function via occupancy of specific recognition sites (PubMed:8250832). Can also peroxidize linoleate ((9Z,12Z)-octadecadienoate) to (13S)-hydroperoxyoctadecadienoate/ (13S-HPODE) (By similarity). Due to its role in regulating both the expression of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF, an angiogenic factor involved in the survival and metastasis of solid tumors) and the expression of integrin beta-1 (known to affect tumor cell migration and proliferation), it can be regarded as protumorigenic (PubMed:16638750, PubMed:22237009, PubMed:9751607). Important for cell survival, as it may play a role not only in proliferation but also in the prevention of apoptosis in vascular smooth muscle cells (PubMed:23578768)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (27)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Ccytoplasm
- Ccytosol
- Cextracellular exosome
- Cmembrane
- Csarcolemma
- Farachidonate 12(S)-lipoxygenase activity
- Farachidonate 15-lipoxygenase activity
- Fhepoxilin-epoxide hydrolase activity
- Firon ion binding
- Flinoleate 13S-lipoxygenase activity
- Parachidonate metabolic process
- Pestablishment of skin barrier
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Lipid & lipoprotein metabolism
- ·Catalyzes the regio and stereo-specific incorporation of molecular oxygen into free and…
- ·fatty acid oxidation
- ·lipid metabolic process
- ·unsaturated fatty acid metabolic process
Cell proliferation & survival
- ·Catalyzes the regio and stereo-specific incorporation of molecular oxygen into free and…
Cell migration
- ·Catalyzes the regio and stereo-specific incorporation of molecular oxygen into free and…
Haemostasis
- ·Catalyzes the regio and stereo-specific incorporation of molecular oxygen into free and…
- ·negative regulation of platelet aggregation
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 ALOX12
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene ALOX12 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.
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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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Drug development
1 compounds recorded · 1 approved
View all recorded compounds (1)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 — Strong
Antibodies — Emerging
Protein degraders — Emerging
View underlying tractability evidence (7)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
Safety-related annotations
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
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.