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Protein / target

Galanin peptides

Encoded byGALP22466Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Structure with Ligand
3
Research papers

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Type 1 galanin receptor binding

Strongest disease association

Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe

Via encoding gene GAL · Genetic evidence · score 0.61

Research activity

Emerging research

3 papers · latest 2025

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

Endocrine hormone of the central and peripheral nervous systems that binds and activates the G protein-coupled receptors GALR1, GALR2, and GALR3.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Endocrine hormone of the central and peripheral nervous systems that binds and activates the G protein-coupled receptors GALR1, GALR2, and GALR3. This small neuropeptide may regulate diverse physiologic functions including contraction of smooth muscle of the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tract, growth hormone and insulin release and adrenal secretion

Subcellular location

Secreted
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (28)

Gene Ontology

  • Cextracellular region
  • Cextracellular space
  • Cneuronal cell body
  • Csecretory granule
  • Fgalanin receptor activity
  • Fgalanin receptor binding
  • Fneuropeptide hormone activity
  • Ftype 1 galanin receptor binding
  • Ftype 2 galanin receptor binding
  • Ftype 3 galanin receptor binding
  • Padenylate cyclase-activating G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway
  • Pbehavioral response to ethanol

123 aa · 13 kDa

Biological roles

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

G protein-coupled signallingUniProt · GO
View supporting evidence

G protein-coupled signalling

  • ·Endocrine hormone of the central and peripheral nervous systems that binds and activates…
  • ·adenylate cyclase-activating G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway

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 GAL

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene GALthat 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.

Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe
0.65Moderately supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.47

Spondylitis, Ankylosing
0.45Limited support

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.27

Neurodegenerative Diseases
0.30Preliminary

Pathway evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.46 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Joint Diseases
0.17Preliminary

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.10

Neoplasms
0.15Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.12 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

View evidence synthesis (5)
Epilepsy, Temporal LobeModerately supported
0.65
agreement 0.530.77
Genetic84%Animal model14%Literature1%Genetic literaturedup

Open Targets aggregate 0.47 · 3 independent evidence families · 1 not counted as duplicate

Spondylitis, AnkylosingLimited support
0.45
agreement 0.330.57
Genetic100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.27 · 1 independent evidence family

Neurodegenerative DiseasesPreliminary
0.30
agreement 0.130.48
Pathway98%Literature2%

Open Targets aggregate 0.46 · 2 independent evidence families · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Joint DiseasesPreliminary
0.17
agreement 0.030.31
Genetic99%Literature1%

Open Targets aggregate 0.10 · 2 independent evidence families

NeoplasmsPreliminary
0.15
agreement 0.000.42
Literature100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.12 · 1 independent evidence family · no direct causal or clinical evidence

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
Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe0.47
Neurodegenerative Diseases0.46
Spondylitis, Ankylosing0.27
Neoplasms0.12
Colorectal Neoplasms0.11
Joint Diseases0.10
Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck0.10

Tractability

Small moleculesEmerging

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

AntibodiesEmerging

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

View underlying tractability evidence (4)
SM · Structure with LigandAB · UniProt loc high confAB · GO CC high confAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMM

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Safety-related annotations

heroin dependenceClinPGx

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

3 papers · to 2025

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

Most cited

Caramia M · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023

Hevesi Z · BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025

Recent

Neuropeptides: The Evergreen Jack-of-All-Trades in Neuronal Circuit Development and Regulation.

Hevesi Z · BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025

Neuronal diversity of neuropeptide signaling, including galanin, in the mouse locus coeruleus.

Caramia M · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023

Europe PMC papers linked directly to this protein.