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Protein / target

Zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox 1

Encoded byZEB1P37275Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
UniProt: P37275Ensembl: ENSG00000148516HGNC: HGNC:11642NCBI Gene: 6935
Degrader-tractable
Druggability
UniProt Ubiquitination
1
Research papers

Protein at a glance

Biological role

DNA-binding transcription factor

Strongest disease association

Fuchs' Endothelial Dystrophy

Via encoding gene ZEB1 · Genetic evidence · score 0.86

Research activity

Emerging research

1 papers · latest 2008

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

Acts as a transcriptional repressor.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Acts as a transcriptional repressor. Inhibits interleukin-2 (IL-2) gene expression. Enhances or represses the promoter activity of the ATP1A1 gene depending on the quantity of cDNA and on the cell type. Represses E-cadherin promoter and induces an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) by recruiting SMARCA4/BRG1. Represses BCL6 transcription in the presence of the corepressor CTBP1. Positively regulates neuronal differentiation. Represses RCOR1 transcription activation during neurogenesis. Represses transcription by binding to the E box (5'-CANNTG-3'). In the absence of TGFB1, acts as a repressor of COL1A2 transcription via binding to the E-box in the upstream enhancer region (By similarity)

Subcellular location

Nucleus
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (19)

Gene Ontology

  • Cchromatin
  • Cnucleolus
  • Cnucleoplasm
  • Cnucleus
  • Fchromatin binding
  • FDNA-binding transcription factor activity
  • FDNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
  • FDNA-binding transcription repressor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
  • FE-box binding
  • FRNA polymerase II cis-regulatory region sequence-specific DNA binding
  • Fzinc ion binding
  • Pcell differentiation

1124 aa · 124 kDa · 5 isoforms

Biological roles

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

Transcriptional regulationUniProt · GO
View supporting evidence

Transcriptional regulation

  • ·Acts as a transcriptional repressor. Inhibits interleukin-2 (IL-2) gene expression. Enha…
  • ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity
  • ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
  • ·DNA-binding transcription repressor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific

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 ZEB1

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene ZEB1 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.

Fuchs' Endothelial Dystrophy
0.92Well supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.75

Genetic Diseases, Inborn
0.78Well supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.47

Corneal Dystrophies, Hereditary
0.77Well supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.47

Ovarian dysfunction
0.52Moderately supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.32

Glaucoma
0.46Limited support

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.35

View evidence synthesis (5)
Fuchs' Endothelial DystrophyWell supported
0.92
agreement 0.80–1.00
Genetic67%Animal model27%Literature6%Genetic literaturedup

Open Targets aggregate 0.75 · 3 independent evidence families · 1 not counted as duplicate

Genetic Diseases, InbornWell supported
0.78
agreement 0.64–0.92
Genetic99%Literature1%

Open Targets aggregate 0.47 · 2 independent evidence families

Corneal Dystrophies, HereditaryWell supported
0.77
agreement 0.63–0.91
Genetic97%Literature3%

Open Targets aggregate 0.47 · 2 independent evidence families

Ovarian dysfunctionModerately supported
0.52
agreement 0.40–0.64
Genetic100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.32 · 1 independent evidence family

GlaucomaLimited support
0.46
agreement 0.32–0.60
Genetic99%Literature1%

Open Targets aggregate 0.35 · 2 independent evidence families

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
Fuchs' Endothelial Dystrophy0.75
Genetic Diseases, Inborn0.47
Corneal Dystrophies, Hereditary0.47
Neurodegenerative Diseases0.35
Glaucoma0.35
Ovarian dysfunction0.32

Tractability

Protein degraders — Emerging

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

View underlying tractability evidence (2)
PR · UniProt UbiquitinationPR · Database Ubiquitination

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Research activity

1 papers · to 2008

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

Most cited

The miR-200 family determines the epithelial phenotype of cancer cells by targeting the E-cadherin repressors ZEB1 and ZEB2.1,810 cites

Park SM · Genes & development · 2008

Recent

The miR-200 family determines the epithelial phenotype of cancer cells by targeting the E-cadherin repressors ZEB1 and ZEB2.

Park SM · Genes & development · 2008

Europe PMC papers linked directly to this protein.