Protein / target

Interleukin-12 subunit beta

IL12BP29460Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Clinically validated
Therapeutic maturity
6
Approved medicines
30
Clinical trials
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Structure with Ligand

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Interleukin-12 alpha subunit binding

Primary system

Immune system

Strongest disease association

psoriasis

Genetic evidence · score 0.97

Therapeutic maturity

Clinically validated target

6 approved medicines against this target

Druggability

Small molecule

Open Targets tractability · Structure with Ligand

Clinical development

6 approved · 2 in clinical development

30 linked trials

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

Cytokine that can act as a growth factor for activated T and NK cells, enhance the lytic activity of NK/lymphokine-activated killer cells, and stimulate the production of IFN-gamma by resting PBMC

Subcellular location

Secreted
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (63)

Domains & features

Ig-like C2-typeFibronectin type-III

Gene Ontology

  • Ccell surface
  • Ccytosol
  • Cendoplasmic reticulum lumen
  • Cextracellular region
  • Cextracellular space
  • Cinterleukin-12 complex
  • Cinterleukin-23 complex
  • Clate endosome lumen
  • Cmembrane
  • Fcytokine activity
  • Fcytokine receptor activity
  • Fidentical protein binding

328 aa · 37 kDa

Biological roles

Reactome v97

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

Immune signallingUniProt · GO · ReactomeCell adhesionGOApoptosis & cell deathGO
View supporting evidence

Immune signalling

  • ·Cytokine that can act as a growth factor for activated T and NK cells, enhance the lytic…
  • ·interleukin-12 complex
  • ·interleukin-23 complex
  • ·cytokine activity

Cell adhesion

  • ·positive regulation of cell adhesion

Apoptosis & cell death

  • ·positive regulation of smooth muscle cell apoptotic process
View underlying pathways (4)

Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.

Interaction neighbourhood

STRING v12.0

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.

IL12AIL23AIL12RB1IL23RIL12RB2IGHV3-…IFNGR1IL2RATYK2P4HBIL12B

10 strongest partners — larger node and heavier line mean higher confidence

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

1

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.

guselkumab
ApprovedInhibitor

Interleukin-23 inhibitor

Appears in clinical studies involving psoriasis vulgaris, psoriatic arthritis, psoriasis, psoriasis vulgaris

Acts on a complex — shared with IL23A · 1 of 2 recorded protein targets — narrow recorded profile

ChEMBL mechanism, action type and target identity. Open Targets clinical status and indications.

Translational evidence

Open Targets 26

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.

psoriasis0.97

Genetic · overall 0.80

psoriasis vulgaris0.93

Genetic · overall 0.74

Crohn disease0.92

Genetic · overall 0.74

psoriatic arthritis0.90

Genetic · overall 0.74

skin disorder0.89

Genetic · overall 0.54

Highest-confidence therapeutic associations

Diseases where a drug acting on this target has already reached clinical development.

ulcerative colitis0.98

Clinical · overall 0.73

immune system disorder0.91

Clinical · overall 0.55

inflammatory bowel disease0.31

Clinical · overall 0.60

Highest overall evidence

Remaining associations by Open Targets' aggregated evidence score.

seborrheic dermatitis0.52

Genetic

erythematosquamous dermatosis0.49

Genetic

Show all associations
psoriasis0.80
Crohn disease0.74
psoriasis vulgaris0.74
psoriatic arthritis0.74
ulcerative colitis0.73
inflammatory bowel disease0.60
immune system disorder0.55
skin disorder0.54
seborrheic dermatitis0.52
erythematosquamous dermatosis0.49

Open Targets ranks 513 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 · 8 total

EBDAROKIMABPhase 3

psoriasis vulgaris · psoriasis · ulcerative colitis

GUSELKUMABApproval

psoriasis vulgaris · psoriatic arthritis · psoriasis

MIRIKIZUMABApproval

Crohn disease · ulcerative colitis · ulcerative colitis

USTEKINUMABApproval

psoriasis vulgaris · psoriatic arthritis · Crohn disease

BRAZIKUMABPhase 3

Crohn disease · Crohn disease · ulcerative colitis

BRIAKINUMABApproval

immune system disorder · psoriasis vulgaris · psoriasis

TILDRAKIZUMABApproval

psoriasis vulgaris · psoriasis vulgaris · psoriasis

RISANKIZUMABApproval

Crohn disease · psoriatic arthritis · psoriasis

Tractability

SM · Structure with LigandSM · Med-Quality PocketAB · Approved DrugAB · GO CC high confAB · UniProt loc med confAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMM

Clinical trials

30

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)

RECRUITING · via guselkumab · NCT05858632

ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.

Forefront confidence

Synthesis

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.

psoriasisWell supported
0.99
agreement 0.891.00
Genetic52%Clinical40%Literature4%RNA expression4%Genetic literaturedup

Open Targets aggregate 0.80 · 4 independent evidence families · 1 not counted as duplicate

psoriasis vulgarisWell supported
0.98
agreement 0.881.00
Genetic55%Clinical44%Literature1%

Open Targets aggregate 0.74 · 3 independent evidence families

Crohn diseaseWell supported
0.98
agreement 0.871.00
Genetic55%Clinical44%Literature1%

Open Targets aggregate 0.74 · 3 independent evidence families

psoriatic arthritisWell supported
0.97
agreement 0.871.00
Genetic54%Clinical45%Literature1%

Open Targets aggregate 0.74 · 3 independent evidence families

ulcerative colitisWell supported
0.97
agreement 0.861.00
Genetic54%Clinical45%Literature1%

Open Targets aggregate 0.73 · 3 independent evidence families

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

4

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.

  1. Industry development2026-06-09
    AbbVie’s Skyrizi narrowly slides ahead of J&J’s Tremfya in May drug ad spending rankings

    Fierce Pharma · news · via guselkumab

  2. New publication2024-03-15
    Comparative Effectiveness of Bimekizumab and Guselkumab in Patients with Psoriatic Arthritis at 52 Weeks Assessed Using a Matching-Adjusted Indirect Comparison.

    Rheumatology and therapy · 2024 · 3 citations · Europe PMC · via guselkumab

  3. Regulatory approval2017-11-10

    Approval: Tremfya (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via guselkumab

  4. New publication2017-01-02
    Efficacy and safety of guselkumab, an anti-interleukin-23 monoclonal antibody, compared with adalimumab for the continuous treatment of patients with moderate to severe psoriasis: Results from the phase III, double-blinded, placebo- and active comparator-controlled VOYAGE 1 trial.

    Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology · 2017 · 617 citations · Europe PMC · via guselkumab

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.