Protein / target
Interferon alpha/beta receptor 1
Protein at a glance
Biological role
JAK pathway signal transduction adaptor activity
Primary system
Immune system
Strongest disease association
immunodeficiency 106, susceptibility to viral infections
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Antibody
Clinical development
12 approved
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function
Together with IFNAR2, forms the heterodimeric receptor for type I interferons (including interferons alpha, beta, epsilon, omega and kappa) (PubMed:10049744, PubMed:14532120, PubMed:15337770, PubMed:2153461, PubMed:21854986, PubMed:24075985, PubMed:31270247, PubMed:33252644, PubMed:35442418, PubMed:7813427). Type I interferon binding activates the JAK-STAT signaling cascade, resulting in transcriptional activation or repression of interferon-regulated genes that encode the effectors of the interferon response (PubMed:10049744, PubMed:21854986, PubMed:7665574). Mechanistically, type I interferon-binding brings the IFNAR1 and IFNAR2 subunits into close proximity with one another, driving their associated Janus kinases (JAKs) (TYK2 bound to IFNAR1 and JAK1 bound to IFNAR2) to cross-phosphorylate one another (PubMed:21854986, PubMed:32972995, PubMed:7665574, PubMed:7813427). The activated kinases phosphorylate specific tyrosine residues on the intracellular domains of IFNAR1 and IFNAR2, forming docking sites for the STAT transcription factors (PubMed:21854986, PubMed:32972995, PubMed:7526154, PubMed:7665574, PubMed:7813427). STAT proteins are then phosphorylated by the JAKs, promoting their translocation into the nucleus to regulate expression of interferon-regulated genes (PubMed:19561067, PubMed:21854986, PubMed:32972995, PubMed:7665574, PubMed:7813427, PubMed:9121453). Can also act independently of IFNAR2: form an active IFNB1 receptor by itself and activate a signaling cascade that does not involve activation of the JAK-STAT pathway (By similarity)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (19)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Clate endosome
- Clysosome
- Cplasma membrane
- Fcytokine binding
- FJAK pathway signal transduction adaptor activity
- Ftype I interferon binding
- Ftype I interferon receptor activity
- Pcell surface receptor signaling pathway via JAK-STAT
- Pcellular response to interferon-alpha
- Pcellular response to interferon-beta
- Pcellular response to virus
- Ppositive regulation of cellular respiration
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
- ·cytokine binding
- ·SARS-CoV-2 activates/modulates innate and adaptive immune responses
Transcriptional regulation
- ·Together with IFNAR2, forms the heterodimeric receptor for type I interferons (including…
View underlying pathways (5)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.
Interferon-alpha/beta receptor alpha chain antagonist
Appears in clinical studies involving systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic lupus erythematosus, lupus nephritis, systemic sclerosis
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 631 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 · 12 total
multiple sclerosis · neoplasm · AIDS
hairy cell leukemia · melanoma · follicular lymphoma
AIDS related complex
chronic hepatitis C virus infection · neoplasm · hepatitis C virus infection
multiple sclerosis · neoplasm · multiple sclerosis
systemic lupus erythematosus · systemic lupus erythematosus · lupus nephritis
hepatitis B virus infection · chronic hepatitis C virus infection · chronic hepatitis C virus infection
chronic hepatitis C virus infection · melanoma · chronic hepatitis C virus infection
neoplasm · hepatitis C virus infection · chronic hepatitis C virus infection
acquired polycythemia vera · neoplasm · essential thrombocythemia
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.
Show remaining trials (18)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
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.
- New publicationType I interferon blockade with anifrolumab in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus modulates key immunopathological pathways in a gene expression and proteomic analysis of two phase 3 trials.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Saphnelo (EMA)
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.