Protein / target
CD40 ligand
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Protein serine/threonine kinase activator
Strongest disease association
Genetic Diseases, Inborn
Therapeutic position
Clinically advancing 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
Cytokine that acts as a ligand to CD40/TNFRSF5.
View complete UniProt function annotationHide complete annotation
Cytokine that acts as a ligand to CD40/TNFRSF5 (PubMed:1280226, PubMed:31331973). Costimulates T-cell proliferation and cytokine production (PubMed:8617933). Its cross-linking on T-cells generates a costimulatory signal which enhances the production of IL4 and IL10 in conjunction with the TCR/CD3 ligation and CD28 costimulation (PubMed:8617933). Induces the activation of NF-kappa-B (PubMed:15067037, PubMed:31331973). Induces the activation of kinases MAPK8 and PAK2 in T-cells (PubMed:15067037). Induces tyrosine phosphorylation of isoform 3 of CD28 (PubMed:15067037). Mediates B-cell proliferation in the absence of co-stimulus as well as IgE production in the presence of IL4 (By similarity). Involved in immunoglobulin class switching (By similarity)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (28)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Ccell surface
- Cexternal side of plasma membrane
- Cextracellular space
- Cmembrane
- Cplasma membrane
- FCD40 receptor binding
- Fcytokine activity
- Fintegrin binding
- Fprotein serine/threonine kinase activator activity
- Ftumor necrosis factor receptor binding
- PB cell proliferation
- PCD40 signaling pathway
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Immune signalling
- ·Cytokine that acts as a ligand to CD40/TNFRSF5 (PubMed:1280226, PubMed:31331973). Costim…
- ·cytokine activity
- ·B cell proliferation
- ·inflammatory response
Apoptosis & cell death
- ·negative regulation of apoptotic process
- ·positive regulation of endothelial cell apoptotic process
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 CD40LG
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene CD40LGthat 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
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
6 compounds recorded · 6 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (6)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 — Emerging
Antibodies — Strong
Protein degraders — Emerging
Other modalities — Strong
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.