Protein / target

Growth hormone receptor

GHRP10912Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Clinically validated
Therapeutic maturity
6
Approved medicines
30
Clinical trials
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Approved Drug

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Protein tyrosine kinase activator activity

Primary system

Endocrine & metabolic

Strongest disease association

Laron syndrome

Genetic evidence · score 0.92

Therapeutic maturity

Clinically validated target

6 approved medicines against this target

Druggability

Small molecule

Open Targets tractability · Approved Drug

Clinical development

6 approved

30 linked trials

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

Receptor for pituitary gland growth hormone (GH1) involved in regulating postnatal body growth (PubMed:1549776, PubMed:2825030, PubMed:8943276). On ligand binding, couples to the JAK2/STAT5 pathway (PubMed:1549776, PubMed:15690087, PubMed:2825030, PubMed:8943276)

Subcellular location

Cell membraneSecreted
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (48)

Domains & features

Fibronectin type-III

Gene Ontology

  • Ccell surface
  • Ccytosol
  • Cexternal side of plasma membrane
  • Cextracellular region
  • Cextracellular space
  • Cgrowth hormone receptor complex
  • Cmembrane
  • Cneuronal cell body
  • Cplasma membrane
  • Creceptor complex
  • Fcytokine binding
  • Fgrowth factor binding

638 aa · 72 kDa · 4 isoforms

Biological roles

Reactome v97

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

Immune signallingGOMetabolic enzyme activityGO
View supporting evidence

Immune signalling

  • ·cytokine binding
  • ·cytokine-mediated signaling pathway
  • ·response to interleukin-1

Metabolic enzyme activity

  • ·hormone metabolic process
  • ·taurine metabolic process
View underlying pathways (2)

Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.

Interaction neighbourhood

STRING v12.0

Proteins with the strongest functional or physical association. Node size and line weight reflect STRING confidence; hover or select a partner to inspect one association.

JAK2GH1SOCS2CSH1CSH2GH2STAT5BPRLIGF1STAT5AGHR

10 strongest partners — larger node and heavier line mean higher confidence

Functional and physical associations from STRING v12.0. Only associations with this protein are drawn — partner-to-partner links are not part of this evidence.

Drugs targeting this protein

2

Whether each drug engages this protein directly or through a complex, and how many other targets are recorded for it. Direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.

Growth Hormone
Narrow target profileAgonist

Growth hormone receptor agonist

Direct interaction with this protein · Only this protein recorded as a target

somapacitan
Narrow target profileApprovedAgonist

Growth hormone receptor agonist

Appears in clinical studies involving pituitary dwarfism, Growth delay, Turner syndrome, Noonan syndrome

Direct interaction with this protein · Only this protein recorded as a target

ChEMBL mechanism, action type and target identity. Open Targets clinical status and indications.

Translational evidence

Open Targets 26

Why this target matters therapeutically — disease associations, drugs in development, tractability and safety, from Open Targets.

Strongest genetic associations

Human genetic evidence — the most direct causal link between this target and a disease.

Laron syndrome0.92

Genetic · overall 0.83

growth hormone insensitivity syndrome0.83

Genetic · overall 0.52

short stature due to partial GHR deficiency0.83

Genetic literature · overall 0.76

Highest-confidence therapeutic associations

Diseases where a drug acting on this target has already reached clinical development.

pituitary dwarfism0.98

Clinical · overall 0.60

Turner syndrome0.97

Clinical · overall 0.60

Growth delay0.96

Clinical · overall 0.59

acromegaly0.96

Clinical · overall 0.60

Prader-Willi syndrome0.92

Clinical · overall 0.57

Highest overall evidence

Remaining associations by Open Targets' aggregated evidence score.

chronic kidney disease0.55

Clinical

gonadal dysgenesis0.53

Clinical

Show all associations
Laron syndrome0.83
short stature due to partial GHR deficiency0.76
Turner syndrome0.60
acromegaly0.60
pituitary dwarfism0.60
Growth delay0.59
Prader-Willi syndrome0.57
chronic kidney disease0.55
gonadal dysgenesis0.53
growth hormone insensitivity syndrome0.52

Open Targets ranks 1,358 associations for this target and we store the top 10 by aggregated score. The long tail is largely literature co-mention and RNA-expression evidence, not evidence that this target drives those diseases.

Known drugs · 6 total

SOMATREMApproval
PEGVISOMANTApproval

acromegaly · McCune-Albright syndrome · acromegaly

SOMAPACITANApproval

pituitary dwarfism · Growth delay · Turner syndrome

LONAPEGSOMATROPINApproval

Growth delay · pituitary dwarfism · pituitary dwarfism

SOMATROGONApproval

pituitary dwarfism · pituitary dwarfism · Short stature

SOMATROPINApproval

chronic kidney disease · Turner syndrome · pituitary dwarfism

Tractability

SM · Approved DrugAB · UniProt loc high confAB · GO CC high confAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMMAB · Human Protein Atlas locPR · UniProt UbiquitinationPR · Database UbiquitinationPR · Half-life DataOC · Approved Drug

Clinical trials

30

Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein.

Show remaining trials (24)

WITHDRAWN · via Growth Hormone · NCT04532554

ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING · via Growth Hormone · NCT05382637

COMPLETED · via Growth Hormone · NCT00191113

COMPLETED · via Growth Hormone · NCT01724489

COMPLETED · via Growth Hormone · NCT01697644

ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.

Related literature

1

Papers indexed under “Receptors, Somatotropin” — a subject heading that covers this protein without being specific to it. Shown as context; not counted as this protein's own research activity.

Growth Hormone Action in Somatostatin Neurons Regulates Anxiety and Fear Memory.

Dos Santos WO · The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023

Europe PMC literature, reached through a MeSH descriptor linked to this protein.

Forefront confidence

Synthesis

Our own weighting of the evidence behind each disease association. Human genetics and clinical evidence count for most; literature co-mention counts for little, because two entities sharing an abstract is not evidence that one drives the other.

Laron syndromeWell supported
0.93
agreement 0.811.00
Genetic82%Animal model13%Literature5%Genetic literaturedup

Open Targets aggregate 0.83 · 3 independent evidence families · 1 not counted as duplicate

short stature due to partial GHR deficiencyWell supported
0.85
agreement 0.730.97
Genetic86%Animal model14%Literature0%Genetic literaturedup

Open Targets aggregate 0.76 · 3 independent evidence families · 1 not counted as duplicate

growth hormone insensitivity syndromeWell supported
0.84
agreement 0.700.98
Genetic96%Literature4%

Open Targets aggregate 0.52 · 2 independent evidence families

Turner syndromeWell supported
0.78
agreement 0.650.91
Clinical78%Animal model18%Literature5%

Open Targets aggregate 0.60 · 3 independent evidence families

acromegalyWell supported
0.77
agreement 0.640.90
Clinical80%Animal model12%Literature8%

Open Targets aggregate 0.60 · 3 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 underlying per-type scores are shown above so the calculation can be checked.

What's happening now

29

Recent activity around this target, drawn from one canonical event stream. Every item is reached through 2 drugs that target this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.

  1. New publication2024-06-01
    Growth hormone treatment for neurologic symptoms of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19.

    Clinical and translational science · 2024 · 3 citations · Europe PMC · via Growth Hormone

  2. New publication2024-01-24
    Complex relationship between growth hormone and sleep in children: insights, discrepancies, and implications.

    Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023 · 19 citations · Europe PMC · via Growth Hormone

  3. New publication2024-01-22
    Recent insights into the role of hormones during development and their functional regulation.

    Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024 · 8 citations · Europe PMC · via Growth Hormone

  4. New publication2023-12-14
    A Superlong-Acting Growth Hormone-Polypeptide Fusion for Growth Hormone Deficiency Treatment.

    Advanced healthcare materials · 2024 · 4 citations · Europe PMC · via Growth Hormone

  5. New publication2023-09-12
    Prolactin and Growth Hormone Signaling and Interlink Focused on the Mammosomatotroph Paradigm: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature.

    International journal of molecular sciences · 2023 · 7 citations · Europe PMC · via Growth Hormone

  6. New publication2023-09-01
    Investigation of the metabolic and endocrinological differences between daily and weekly growth hormone replacement therapy, somapacitan, in patients with adult growth hormone deficiency: A real-world pilot study.

    Medicine · 2023 · 1 citation · Europe PMC · via somapacitan

  7. New publication2023-08-25
    Growth Hormone Action in Somatostatin Neurons Regulates Anxiety and Fear Memory.

    The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023 · 18 citations · Europe PMC · via Growth Hormone

  8. New publication2023-08-14
    Cancer in growth hormone excess and growth hormone deficit.

    Endocrine-related cancer · 2023 · 12 citations · Europe PMC · via Growth Hormone

  9. New publication2023-08-02
    Aging under endocrine hormone regulation.

    Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023 · 11 citations · Europe PMC · via Growth Hormone

  10. New publication2023-07-11
    Components of the metabolic syndrome in girls with Turner syndrome treated with growth hormone in a long term prospective study.

    Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023 · 4 citations · Europe PMC · via Growth Hormone

  11. New publication2023-07-05
    Growth hormone remodels the 3D-structure of the mitochondria of inflammatory macrophages and promotes metabolic reprogramming.

    Frontiers in immunology · 2023 · 4 citations · Europe PMC · via Growth Hormone

  12. Regulatory approval2021-03-31

    Approval: Sogroya (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via somapacitan

Objective event titles are shown unmodified; the event kind and significance line are derived from structured fields. Forefront AttentionEvent stream aggregating Europe PMC Regulatory filings ClinicalTrials.gov.