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Protein / target

Polyunsaturated fatty acid lipoxygenase ALOX12

Encoded byALOX12P18054Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Clinically validated
Therapeutic maturity
1
Approved medicines
Open Targets target-level
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Approved Drug
1
Research papers

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Arachidonate 12(S)-lipoxygenase

Strongest disease association

Venous Thromboembolism

Via encoding gene ALOX12 · Genetic evidence · score 0.48

Therapeutic position

Established drug target

Small molecules

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

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.

View complete UniProt function annotation

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

Cytoplasm, cytosolMembrane
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (27)

Domains & features

PLATLipoxygenase

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

663 aa · 76 kDa

Biological roles

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

Lipid & lipoprotein metabolismUniProt · GOCell proliferation & survivalUniProtCell migrationUniProtHaemostasisUniProt · GO
View supporting evidence

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

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 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.

Venous Thromboembolism
0.48Limited support

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.29

Cholelithiasis
0.34Limited support

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.21

Esophageal Neoplasms
0.25Limited support

Genetic literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.19

Neurodegenerative Diseases
0.23Preliminary

Pathway evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.33 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma
0.16Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.10 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

View evidence synthesis (5)
Venous ThromboembolismLimited support
0.48
agreement 0.360.60
Genetic100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.29 · 1 independent evidence family

CholelithiasisLimited support
0.34
agreement 0.220.46
Genetic100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.21 · 1 independent evidence family

Esophageal NeoplasmsLimited support
0.25
agreement 0.100.40
Genetic literature95%Literature5%

Open Targets aggregate 0.19 · 2 independent evidence families

Neurodegenerative DiseasesPreliminary
0.23
agreement 0.050.41
Pathway95%Literature5%

Open Targets aggregate 0.33 · 2 independent evidence families · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Esophageal Squamous Cell CarcinomaPreliminary
0.16
agreement 0.000.35
Literature71%RNA expression29%

Open Targets aggregate 0.10 · 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 Diseases0.33
Venous Thromboembolism0.29
Cholelithiasis0.21
Esophageal Neoplasms0.19
Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma0.10
Neoplasms0.09

Drug development

1 compounds recorded · 1 approved

Open Targets' development universe — every compound recorded against the target at any stage, not all approved medicines.

View all recorded compounds (1)
BENOXAPROFENApproval

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 moleculesStrong

Approved Drug and Structure with Ligand support this modality.

AntibodiesEmerging

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

Protein degradersEmerging

Feasibility evidence (small molecule binder) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

View underlying tractability evidence (7)
SM · Approved DrugSM · Structure with LigandSM · High-Quality LigandSM · Med-Quality PocketSM · Druggable FamilyAB · GO CC high confPR · Small Molecule Binder

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Safety-related annotations

adenoma recurrenceClinPGx

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

Recent

Europe PMC papers linked directly to this protein.