Protein / target
Interleukin-23 subunit alpha
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Interleukin-23 receptor binding
Primary system
Immune system
Strongest disease association
psoriasis
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
6 approved · 2 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
Associates with IL12B to form the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-23 that plays different roles in innate and adaptive immunity (PubMed:11114383). Released by antigen-presenting cells such as dendritic cells or macrophages, binds to a heterodimeric receptor complex composed of IL12RB1 and IL23R to activate JAK2 and TYK2 which then phosphorylate the receptor to form a docking site leading to the phosphorylation of STAT3 and STAT4 (PubMed:29287995, PubMed:32474165, PubMed:33606986). This process leads to activation of several pathways including p38 MAPK or NF-kappa-B and promotes the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-17A/IL17A (PubMed:12023369). In turn, participates in the early and effective intracellular bacterial clearance (PubMed:32474165). Promotes the expansion and survival of T-helper 17 cells, a CD4-positive helper T-cell subset that produces IL-17, as well as other IL-17-producing cells (PubMed:17676044)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (38)Hide
Gene Ontology
- Cendoplasmic reticulum lumen
- Cextracellular region
- Cextracellular space
- Cinterleukin-23 complex
- Fcytokine activity
- Finterleukin-23 receptor binding
- Pcell surface receptor signaling pathway via JAK-STAT
- Pcell surface receptor signaling pathway via STAT
- Pdefense response to Gram-negative bacterium
- Pdefense response to virus
- Pinflammatory response
- Pinnate immune response
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
- ·Associates with IL12B to form the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-23 that plays different r…
- ·interleukin-23 complex
- ·cytokine activity
- ·interleukin-23 receptor binding
Kinase signalling
- ·Associates with IL12B to form the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-23 that plays different r…
View underlying pathways (2)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-23 inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving psoriasis vulgaris, psoriatic arthritis, psoriasis, psoriasis vulgaris
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 663 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
psoriasis vulgaris · psoriatic arthritis · psoriasis
immune system disorder · psoriasis vulgaris · psoriasis
psoriasis vulgaris · psoriatic arthritis · Crohn disease
psoriasis vulgaris · psoriasis · ulcerative colitis
psoriasis vulgaris · psoriasis vulgaris · psoriasis
Crohn disease · ulcerative colitis · ulcerative colitis
Crohn disease · Crohn disease · ulcerative colitis
Crohn disease · psoriatic arthritis · psoriasis
Tractability
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.
Related literature
Papers indexed under “Interleukin-23 Subunit p19” — a subject heading that covers this protein without being specific to it. Shown as context; not counted as this protein's own research activity.
Europe PMC literature, reached through a MeSH descriptor linked to this protein.
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.
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.
- Industry developmentAbbVie’s Skyrizi narrowly slides ahead of J&J’s Tremfya in May drug ad spending rankings
- New publicationComparative Effectiveness of Bimekizumab and Guselkumab in Patients with Psoriatic Arthritis at 52 Weeks Assessed Using a Matching-Adjusted Indirect Comparison.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Tremfya (EMA)
- New publicationEfficacy 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.
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.