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Protein / target

Acetyl-coenzyme A synthetase, cytoplasmic

Encoded byACSS2Q9NR19Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
High-Quality Ligand
1
Research papers

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Transcription coactivator

Strongest disease association

Angina Pectoris

Via encoding gene ACSS2 · Genetic evidence · score 0.30

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 synthesis of acetyl-CoA from short-chain fatty acids.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Catalyzes the synthesis of acetyl-CoA from short-chain fatty acids (PubMed:10843999, PubMed:28003429, PubMed:28552616, PubMed:38369012, PubMed:39561764). Acetate is the preferred substrate (PubMed:10843999, PubMed:28003429, PubMed:38369012, PubMed:39561764). Can also utilize propionate with a much lower affinity (PubMed:38369012). Catalyzes the conversion of lactate into lactoyl-CoA (PubMed:39561764). Does not catalyze the conversion of butyrate or crotonate to their corresponding acyl-CoAs (PubMed:38369012). Nuclear ACSS2 promotes glucose deprivation-induced lysosomal biogenesis and autophagy, tumor cell survival and brain tumorigenesis (PubMed:28552616). Glucose deprivation results in AMPK-mediated phosphorylation of ACSS2 leading to its translocation to the nucleus where it binds to TFEB and locally produces acetyl-CoA for histone acetylation in the promoter regions of TFEB target genes thereby activating their transcription (PubMed:28552616). The regulation of genes associated with autophagy and lysosomal activity through ACSS2 is important for brain tumorigenesis and tumor survival (PubMed:28552616). Acts as a chromatin-bound transcriptional coactivator that up-regulates histone acetylation and expression of neuronal genes (By similarity). Can be recruited to the loci of memory-related neuronal genes to maintain a local acetyl-CoA pool, providing the substrate for histone acetylation and promoting the expression of specific genes, which is essential for maintaining long-term spatial memory (By similarity)

Subcellular location

Cytoplasm, cytosolCytoplasmNucleus
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (19)

Gene Ontology

  • Ccytoplasm
  • Ccytosol
  • Cmitochondrial matrix
  • Cnucleoplasm
  • Cnucleus
  • Facetate-CoA ligase activity
  • FAMP binding
  • FATP binding
  • Fchromatin binding
  • Fpropionate-CoA ligase activity
  • Ftranscription coactivator activity
  • Pacetate biosynthetic process

701 aa · 79 kDa · 2 isoforms

Biological roles

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

Cell proliferation & survivalUniProtOncogenic signallingUniProtLipid & lipoprotein metabolismUniProtTranscriptional regulationUniProt · GO
View supporting evidence

Cell proliferation & survival

  • ·Catalyzes the synthesis of acetyl-CoA from short-chain fatty acids (PubMed:10843999, Pub…

Oncogenic signalling

  • ·Catalyzes the synthesis of acetyl-CoA from short-chain fatty acids (PubMed:10843999, Pub…

Lipid & lipoprotein metabolism

  • ·Catalyzes the synthesis of acetyl-CoA from short-chain fatty acids (PubMed:10843999, Pub…

Transcriptional regulation

  • ·Catalyzes the synthesis of acetyl-CoA from short-chain fatty acids (PubMed:10843999, Pub…
  • ·transcription coactivator activity
  • ·DNA-templated transcription

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 ACSS2

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene ACSS2 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.

Angina Pectoris
0.30Limited support

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.19

Neurodegenerative Diseases
0.25Preliminary

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

Autoimmune disorder of central nervous system
0.17Preliminary

Pathway evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.26 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Coronary Artery Disease
0.15Preliminary

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.09

Neoplasms
0.13Preliminary

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

View evidence synthesis (5)
Angina PectorisLimited support
0.30
agreement 0.180.42
Genetic100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.19 · 1 independent evidence family

Neurodegenerative DiseasesPreliminary
0.25
agreement 0.070.42
Pathway98%Literature2%

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

Autoimmune disorder of central nervous systemPreliminary
0.17
agreement 0.000.40
Pathway100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.26 · 1 independent evidence family · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Coronary Artery DiseasePreliminary
0.15
agreement 0.010.29
Genetic97%Literature3%

Open Targets aggregate 0.09 · 2 independent evidence families

NeoplasmsPreliminary
0.13
agreement 0.000.41
Literature100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.11 · 1 independent evidence family · 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
Autoimmune disorder of central nervous system0.26
Angina Pectoris0.19
Neoplasms0.11
Coronary Artery Disease0.09
Ovarian carcinoma0.08

Tractability

Small moleculesEmerging

Feasibility evidence (high-quality ligand) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

Protein degradersEmerging

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

View underlying tractability evidence (4)
SM · High-Quality LigandPR · Database UbiquitinationPR · Half-life DataPR · Small Molecule Binder

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Safety-related annotations

alcoholismClinPGx

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.