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Protein / target

Interferon regulatory factor 1

Encoded byIRF1P10914Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Degrader-tractable
Druggability
UniProt Ubiquitination
1
Research papers

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Transcription cis-regulatory region binding

Strongest disease association

Asthma

Via encoding gene IRF1 · Genetic evidence · score 0.83

Research activity

Emerging research

1 papers · latest 2017

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

Transcriptional regulator which displays a remarkable functional diversity in the regulation of cellular responses.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Transcriptional regulator which displays a remarkable functional diversity in the regulation of cellular responses (PubMed:15226432, PubMed:15509808, PubMed:17516545, PubMed:17942705, PubMed:18497060, PubMed:19404407, PubMed:19851330, PubMed:22367195, PubMed:32385160). Regulates transcription of IFN and IFN-inducible genes, host response to viral and bacterial infections, regulation of many genes expressed during hematopoiesis, inflammation, immune responses and cell proliferation and differentiation, regulation of the cell cycle and induction of growth arrest and programmed cell death following DNA damage (PubMed:15226432, PubMed:15509808, PubMed:17516545, PubMed:17942705, PubMed:18497060, PubMed:19404407, PubMed:19851330, PubMed:22367195, PubMed:7687740). Stimulates both innate and acquired immune responses through the activation of specific target genes and can act as a transcriptional activator and repressor regulating target genes by binding to an interferon-stimulated response element (ISRE) in their promoters (PubMed:15226432, PubMed:15509808, PubMed:17516545, PubMed:17942705, PubMed:18497060, PubMed:19404407, PubMed:19851330, PubMed:21389130, PubMed:22367195). Has an essential role in IFNG-dependent immunity to mycobacteria (PubMed:36736301). Competes with the transcriptional repressor ZBED2 for binding to a common consensus sequence in gene promoters (PubMed:32385160). Its target genes for transcriptional activation activity include: genes involved in anti-viral response, such as IFN-alpha/beta, RIGI, TNFSF10/TRAIL, ZBP1, OAS1/2, PIAS1/GBP, EIF2AK2/PKR and RSAD2/viperin; antibacterial response, such as GBP2, GBP5 and NOS2/INOS; anti-proliferative response, such as p53/TP53, LOX and CDKN1A; apoptosis, such as BBC3/PUMA, CASP1, CASP7 and CASP8; immune response, such as IL7, IL12A/B and IL15, PTGS2/COX2 and CYBB; DNA damage responses and DNA repair, such as POLQ/POLH; MHC class I expression, such as TAP1, PSMB9/LMP2, PSME1/PA28A, PSME2/PA28B and B2M and MHC class II expression, such as CIITA; metabolic enzymes, such as ACOD1/IRG1 (PubMed:15226432, PubMed:15509808, PubMed:17516545, PubMed:17942705, PubMed:18497060, PubMed:19404407, PubMed:19851330, PubMed:22367195). Represses genes involved in anti-proliferative response, such as BIRC5/survivin, CCNB1, CCNE1, CDK1, CDK2 and CDK4 and in immune response, such as FOXP3, IL4, ANXA2 and TLR4 (PubMed:18641303, PubMed:22200613). Stimulates p53/TP53-dependent transcription through enhanced recruitment of EP300 leading to increased acetylation of p53/TP53 (PubMed:15509808, PubMed:18084608). Plays an important role in immune response directly affecting NK maturation and activity, macrophage production of IL12, Th1 development and maturation of CD8+ T-cells (PubMed:11244049, PubMed:11846971, PubMed:11846974, PubMed:16932750). Also implicated in the differentiation and maturation of dendritic cells and in the suppression of regulatory T (Treg) cells development (PubMed:11244049, PubMed:11846971, PubMed:11846974, PubMed:16932750). Acts as a tumor suppressor and plays a role not only in antagonism of tumor cell growth but also in stimulating an immune response against tumor cells (PubMed:20049431)

Subcellular location

NucleusCytoplasm
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (34)

Gene Ontology

  • Cchromatin
  • Ccytoplasm
  • Ccytosol
  • Cnucleoplasm
  • Cnucleus
  • FDNA binding
  • FDNA-binding transcription activator activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
  • FDNA-binding transcription factor activity
  • FDNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
  • FRNA polymerase II cis-regulatory region sequence-specific DNA binding
  • FRNA polymerase II transcription regulatory region sequence-specific DNA binding
  • Fsequence-specific DNA binding

325 aa · 37 kDa

Biological roles

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

Cell proliferation & survivalGOCell-cycle regulationUniProtTumour suppressionUniProtImmune signallingUniProt · GOTranscriptional regulationUniProt · GOApoptosis & cell deathUniProt · GO
View supporting evidence

Cell proliferation & survival

  • ·negative regulation of cell population proliferation

Cell-cycle regulation

  • ·Transcriptional regulator which displays a remarkable functional diversity in the regula…

Tumour suppression

  • ·Transcriptional regulator which displays a remarkable functional diversity in the regula…

Immune signalling

  • ·Transcriptional regulator which displays a remarkable functional diversity in the regula…
  • ·negative regulation of regulatory T cell differentiation
  • ·regulation of adaptive immune response
  • ·regulation of CD8-positive, alpha-beta T cell proliferation

Transcriptional regulation

  • ·Transcriptional regulator which displays a remarkable functional diversity in the regula…
  • ·DNA-binding transcription activator activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
  • ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity
  • ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific

Apoptosis & cell death

  • ·Transcriptional regulator which displays a remarkable functional diversity in the regula…
  • ·apoptotic process

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 IRF1

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene IRF1that 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.

Asthma
0.84Well supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.51

Stomach Neoplasms
0.81Well supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.64

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
0.76Well supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.46

Gastroesophageal Reflux
0.73Moderately supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.44

Psoriasis
0.69Moderately supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.42

View evidence synthesis (5)
AsthmaWell supported
0.84
agreement 0.700.98
Genetic96%Literature4%

Open Targets aggregate 0.51 · 2 independent evidence families

Stomach NeoplasmsWell supported
0.81
agreement 0.700.92
Genetic58%Somatic mutation31%Literature11%Genetic literaturedup

Open Targets aggregate 0.64 · 3 independent evidence families · 1 not counted as duplicate

Polycystic Ovary SyndromeWell supported
0.76
agreement 0.620.90
Genetic96%Literature4%

Open Targets aggregate 0.46 · 2 independent evidence families

Gastroesophageal RefluxModerately supported
0.73
agreement 0.610.85
Genetic100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.44 · 1 independent evidence family

PsoriasisModerately supported
0.69
agreement 0.570.82
Genetic94%Literature4%RNA expression2%

Open Targets aggregate 0.42 · 3 independent evidence families

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
Stomach Neoplasms0.64
Asthma0.51
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome0.46
Gastroesophageal Reflux0.44
Psoriasis0.42
Crohn's Disease0.42
Neurodegenerative Diseases0.41
Respiratory Tract Diseases0.38
Autoimmune disorder of central nervous system0.37

Tractability

Protein degradersEmerging

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

View underlying tractability evidence (2)
PR · UniProt UbiquitinationPR · Database Ubiquitination

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Safety-related annotations

regulation of transcription factor activityToxCast

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 2017

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.

Related family literature

2

Papers about “Interferon Regulatory Factors” — a broader family this protein belongs to. Shown as context; not counted as papers specifically about this protein.

Interferon-Stimulated Genes: What Do They All Do?

Schoggins JW · Annual review of virology · 2019

via Interferon Regulatory Factors

Genetic programming of macrophages to perform anti-tumor functions using targeted mRNA nanocarriers.

Zhang F · Nature communications · 2019

via Interferon Regulatory Factors

Europe PMC literature, reached through curated HGNC family membership. Membership is a taxonomic relationship — it does not imply this protein participates in every mechanism these papers discuss.