Protein / target
Hepatitis A virus cellular receptor 2
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Transmembrane signaling receptor activity
Primary system
Immune system
Strongest disease association
subcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
1 approved · 2 in clinical development
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
Cell surface receptor implicated in modulating innate and adaptive immune responses. Generally accepted to have an inhibiting function. Reports on stimulating functions suggest that the activity may be influenced by the cellular context and/or the respective ligand (PubMed:24825777). Regulates macrophage activation (PubMed:11823861). Inhibits T-helper type 1 lymphocyte (Th1)-mediated auto- and alloimmune responses and promotes immunological tolerance (PubMed:14556005). In CD8+ cells attenuates TCR-induced signaling, specifically by blocking NF-kappaB and NFAT promoter activities resulting in the loss of IL-2 secretion. The function may implicate its association with LCK proposed to impair phosphorylation of TCR subunits, and/or LGALS9-dependent recruitment of PTPRC to the immunological synapse (PubMed:24337741, PubMed:26492563). In contrast, shown to activate TCR-induced signaling in T-cells probably implicating ZAP70, LCP2, LCK and FYN (By similarity). Expressed on Treg cells can inhibit Th17 cell responses (PubMed:24838857). Receptor for LGALS9 (PubMed:16286920, PubMed:24337741). Binding to LGALS9 is believed to result in suppression of T-cell responses; the resulting apoptosis of antigen-specific cells may implicate HAVCR2 phosphorylation and disruption of its association with BAG6. Binding to LGALS9 is proposed to be involved in innate immune response to intracellular pathogens. Expressed on Th1 cells interacts with LGALS9 expressed on Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected macrophages to stimulate antibactericidal activity including IL-1 beta secretion and to restrict intracellular bacterial growth (By similarity). However, the function as receptor for LGALS9 has been challenged (PubMed:23555261). Also reported to enhance CD8+ T-cell responses to an acute infection such as by Listeria monocytogenes (By similarity). Receptor for phosphatidylserine (PtSer); PtSer-binding is calcium-dependent. May recognize PtSer on apoptotic cells leading to their phagocytosis. Mediates the engulfment of apoptotic cells by dendritic cells. Expressed on T-cells, promotes conjugation but not engulfment of apoptotic cells. Expressed on dendritic cells (DCs) positively regulates innate immune response and in synergy with Toll-like receptors promotes secretion of TNF. In tumor-infiltrating DCs suppresses nucleic acid-mediated innate immune repsonse by interaction with HMGB1 and interfering with nucleic acid-sensing and trafficking of nucleid acids to endosomes (By similarity). Expressed on natural killer (NK) cells and acts as a coreceptor to enhance IFN-gamma production in response to LGALS9 (PubMed:22323453). In contrast, shown to suppress NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity (PubMed:22383801). Negatively regulates NK cell function in LPS-induced endotoxic shock (By similarity)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (48)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Canchoring junction
- Ccell surface
- Cearly endosome
- Cimmunological synapse
- Cmediator complex
- Cplasma membrane
- Fmetal ion binding
- Ftransmembrane signaling receptor activity
- Padaptive immune response
- Pcellular response to lipopolysaccharide
- Pdefense response to Gram-positive bacterium
- Pinflammatory response
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
- ·Cell surface receptor implicated in modulating innate and adaptive immune responses. Gen…
- ·adaptive immune response
- ·inflammatory response
- ·innate immune response
Synaptic signalling
- ·Cell surface receptor implicated in modulating innate and adaptive immune responses. Gen…
- ·immunological synapse
- ·negative regulation of immunological synapse formation
Transcriptional regulation
- ·negative regulation of gene expression
- ·regulation of transcription by RNA polymerase II
Kinase signalling
- ·Cell surface receptor implicated in modulating innate and adaptive immune responses. Gen…
Cell adhesion
- ·Cell junction
View underlying pathways (1)Hide underlying pathways
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Interaction neighbourhood
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.
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
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.
Hepatitis A virus cellular receptor 2 inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving neoplasm, myelodysplastic syndrome, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia
ChEMBL mechanism, action type and target identity. Open Targets clinical status and indications.
Translational evidence
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.
Highest-confidence therapeutic associations
Diseases where a drug acting on this target has already reached clinical development.
Highest overall evidence
Remaining associations by Open Targets' aggregated evidence score.
Show all associationsHide all associations
Open Targets ranks 797 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 · 3 total
esophageal squamous cell carcinoma · esophageal squamous cell carcinoma · neoplasm
non-small cell lung carcinoma · hepatocellular carcinoma · melanoma
neoplasm · myelodysplastic syndrome · chronic myelomonocytic leukemia
Tractability
Clinical trials
Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein.
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
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.
Forefront confidence
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.
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
Recent activity around this target, drawn from one canonical event stream. Every item is reached through a drug that targets this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.
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.