Protein / target

Interleukin-22

Encoded byIL22Q9GZX6Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot

UniProt: Q9GZX6 Ensembl: ENSG00000127318 HGNC: HGNC:14900 NCBI Gene: 50616

Clinical-stage

Therapeutic maturity

Clinical candidates

Small-molecule tractable

Druggability

Structure with Ligand

Research papers

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Interleukin-22 receptor binding

Strongest disease association

Dermatitis, Atopic

Via encoding gene IL22 · Genetic evidence · score 0.84

Therapeutic position

Clinically advancing target

Antibodies

Research activity

Emerging research

4 papers · latest 2024

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

Cytokine that plays a critical role in modulating tissue responses during inflammation.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Cytokine that plays a critical role in modulating tissue responses during inflammation (PubMed:17204547). Plays an essential role in the regeneration of epithelial cells to maintain barrier function after injury and for the prevention of further tissue damage (PubMed:17204547). Unlike most of the cytokines, has no effect on immune cells. Signals through a heterodimeric receptor composed of two subunits, the specific receptor IL22RA1 which is present on non-immune cells in many organs and the shared subunit IL10RB (PubMed:10875937, PubMed:18599299). Ligation of IL22RA1 with IL22 induces activation of the tyrosine kinases JAK1 and TYK2, which in turn activates STAT3. In turn, promotes cell survival and proliferation through STAT3, ERK1/2 and PI3K/AKT pathways (PubMed:25793261, PubMed:31311100). Promotes phosphorylation of GSK3B at 'Ser-9' and CTTN (By similarity). Promotes epithelial cell spreading (By similarity)

Subcellular location

Secreted

Domains and Gene Ontology detail (8)

Gene Ontology

Cextracellular region
Cextracellular space
Fcytokine activity
Finterleukin-22 receptor binding
Pacute-phase response
Pinflammatory response
Pnegative regulation of inflammatory response
Presponse to glucocorticoid

179 aa · 20 kDa

Biological roles

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

Cell proliferation & survivalUniProtImmune signallingUniProt · GO

View supporting evidence

Cell proliferation & survival

·Cytokine that plays a critical role in modulating tissue responses during inflammation (…

Immune signalling

·Cytokine that plays a critical role in modulating tissue responses during inflammation (…
·cytokine activity
·interleukin-22 receptor binding
·inflammatory response

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 IL22

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene IL22that 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.

Dermatitis, Atopic

0.86Well supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.53

Dermatitis

0.55Moderately supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.33

Neoplasms

0.34Preliminary

Pathway evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.40 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Psoriasis

0.22Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.12

Arthritis, Rheumatoid

0.22Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.13

View evidence synthesis (5)

Dermatitis, AtopicWell supported

0.86

agreement 0.75–0.96

Genetic87%Clinical10%Literature3%

Open Targets aggregate 0.53 · 3 independent evidence families

DermatitisModerately supported

0.55

agreement 0.41–0.69

Genetic96%Literature4%

Open Targets aggregate 0.33 · 2 independent evidence families

NeoplasmsPreliminary

0.34

agreement 0.16–0.52

Pathway65%Literature35%

Open Targets aggregate 0.40 · 2 independent evidence families · no direct causal or clinical evidence

PsoriasisPreliminary

0.22

agreement 0.09–0.36

Literature57%RNA expression24%Clinical19%

Open Targets aggregate 0.12 · 3 independent evidence families

Arthritis, RheumatoidPreliminary

0.22

agreement 0.06–0.37

Literature60%Clinical40%

Open Targets aggregate 0.13 · 2 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 per-type scores above show the calculation.

Show all associations

Dermatitis, Atopic0.53

Neoplasms0.40

Dermatitis0.33

Arthritis, Rheumatoid0.13

Psoriasis0.12

Infections0.12

Drug development

1 compounds recorded · 1 in clinical development

Open Targets' development universe — every compound recorded against the target at any stage, not all approved medicines.

View all recorded compounds (1)

FEZAKINUMABPhase 2

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

Feasibility evidence (structure with ligand) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

Antibodies — Strong

Advanced Clinical and GO CC high conf support this modality.

View underlying tractability evidence (5)

SM · Structure with LigandAB · Advanced ClinicalAB · GO CC high confAB · UniProt loc med confAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMM

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.