Protein / target
Interleukin-1 beta
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Protein domain specific binding
Strongest disease association
Antisynthetase syndrome
Therapeutic position
Established drug target
Research activity
Actively researched
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Potent pro-inflammatory cytokine.
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Potent pro-inflammatory cytokine (PubMed:10653850, PubMed:12794819, PubMed:28331908, PubMed:3920526). Initially discovered as the major endogenous pyrogen, induces prostaglandin synthesis, neutrophil influx and activation, T-cell activation and cytokine production, B-cell activation and antibody production, and fibroblast proliferation and collagen production (PubMed:3920526). Promotes Th17 differentiation of T-cells. Synergizes with IL12/interleukin-12 to induce IFNG synthesis from T-helper 1 (Th1) cells (PubMed:10653850). Plays a role in angiogenesis by inducing VEGF production synergistically with TNF and IL6 (PubMed:12794819). Involved in transduction of inflammation downstream of pyroptosis: its mature form is specifically released in the extracellular milieu by passing through the gasdermin-D (GSDMD) pore (PubMed:33377178, PubMed:33883744). Acts as a sensor of S.pyogenes infection in skin: cleaved and activated by pyogenes SpeB protease, leading to an inflammatory response that prevents bacterial growth during invasive skin infection (PubMed:28331908)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (91)Hide
Gene Ontology
- Ccytosol
- Cextracellular region
- Cextracellular space
- Clysosome
- Csecretory granule
- Fcytokine activity
- Fintegrin binding
- Finterleukin-1 receptor binding
- Fprotein domain specific binding
- Papoptotic process
- Pcell-cell signaling
- Pcellular response to interleukin-17
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Growth-factor signalling
- ·positive regulation of platelet-derived growth factor receptor signaling pathway
- ·positive regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor signaling pathway
Cell proliferation & survival
- ·negative regulation of cell population proliferation
- ·positive regulation of cell population proliferation
Synaptic signalling
- ·negative regulation of synaptic transmission
Cell migration
- ·positive regulation of cell migration
Lipid & lipoprotein metabolism
- ·negative regulation of lipid metabolic process
Immune signalling
- ·Potent pro-inflammatory cytokine (PubMed:10653850, PubMed:12794819, PubMed:28331908, Pub…
- ·cytokine activity
- ·interleukin-1 receptor binding
- ·cellular response to interleukin-17
View underlying pathways (10)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.
Approved medicines with mapped indications
Approved therapies targeting this protein, grouped by what they are approved to treat — the disease-first view of the medicines below. Relationships come from the canonical approved-indication graph (ChEMBL phase-4), the same source as the drug cards.
2 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 1 shown here are those on this page with a canonical approved disease indication in the graph. Approved indications from ChEMBL (phase-4), via the canonical drug→disease graph.
Drugs targeting this protein
How approved and investigational drugs engage this protein — mechanism and action type, direct vs complex targeting, and how broadly each acts across other targets. A drug-first view (the section above groups the approved ones disease-first); direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.
Interleukin-1 beta inhibitor
Indicated for Arthritis, Gouty, Arthritis, Juvenile, Cryopyrin-associated Periodic Syndromes, Immune System Diseases
ChEMBL mechanism, action type, target identity and approved indications. Open Targets clinical status.
Translational evidence
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 IL1B
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene IL1B that 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.
View evidence synthesis (5)Hide
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.
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Drug development
5 compounds recorded · 2 approved · 3 in clinical development
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Open Targets known-drugs universe. Drug name and highest clinical stage only — the disease relationship is NOT read from this slice (it carries trial-context noise); approved indications come from the canonical graph above.
Tractability
Small molecules — Emerging
Antibodies — Strong
Protein degraders — Emerging
Other modalities — Strong
View underlying tractability evidence (8)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
Safety-related annotations
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.
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. Ranked by active status, then clinical phase and recency, and spread across the targeting drugs.
View all trials (26)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
What's happening now
Recent therapeutic activity around this target — regulatory actions, clinical trials and safety signals for a drug that targets this protein, plus publications where such a drug is a genuine subject. Every item is reached indirectly through the drug, not the protein itself; incidental mentions (a paper that merely measures a drug) and press items are excluded.
- New publicationInterleukin-6 Signaling and Anti-Interleukin-6 Therapeutics in Cardiovascular Disease.
- New publicationCanakinumab reduces the risk of acute gouty arthritis flares during initiation of allopurinol treatment: results of a double-blind, randomised study.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Ilaris (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.
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.