Protein / target
Interleukin-1 beta
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Protein domain specific binding
Primary system
Immune system
Strongest disease association
antisynthetase syndrome
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
2 approved · 3 in clinical development
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function
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.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Immune signalling
- ·Potent pro-inflammatory cytokine (PubMed:10653850, PubMed:12794819, PubMed:28331908, Pub…
- ·cytokine activity
- ·interleukin-1 receptor binding
- ·cellular response to interleukin-17
Proteolysis
- ·Potent pro-inflammatory cytokine (PubMed:10653850, PubMed:12794819, PubMed:28331908, Pub…
- ·positive regulation of membrane protein ectodomain proteolysis
Cell adhesion
- ·positive regulation of cell adhesion molecule production
- ·positive regulation of heterotypic cell-cell adhesion
- ·positive regulation of tight junction disassembly
Transcriptional regulation
- ·positive regulation of DNA-templated transcription
- ·positive regulation of gene expression
Synaptic signalling
- ·negative regulation of synaptic transmission
Kinase signalling
- ·positive regulation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/protein kinase B signal transduction
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.
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.
Interleukin-1 beta inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome, Muckle-Wells syndrome, familial Mediterranean fever, mevalonate kinase deficiency
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 2,788 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 · 5 total
cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome · Muckle-Wells syndrome · familial Mediterranean fever
hidradenitis suppurativa · osteoarthritis · synovitis
type 2 diabetes mellitus · non-infectious posterior uveitis · uveitis
Familial cold urticaria · Muckle-Wells syndrome · cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome
immune system disorder
Tractability
Safety liabilities
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 (24)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.
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 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 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.