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Protein / target

Interleukin-5 receptor subunit alpha

Encoded byIL5RAQ01344Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Clinically validated
Therapeutic maturity
1
Approved medicines
Open Targets target-level
View by indication →
30
Clinical trials
Antibody-tractable
Druggability
Approved Drug

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Interleukin-5 receptor

Strongest disease association

Asthma

Via encoding gene IL5RA · Clinical evidence · score 0.61

Therapeutic position

Established drug target

Antibodies

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

Cell surface receptor that plays an important role in the survival, differentiation, and chemotaxis of eosinophils.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Cell surface receptor that plays an important role in the survival, differentiation, and chemotaxis of eosinophils (PubMed:9378992). Acts by forming a heterodimeric receptor with CSF2RB subunit and subsequently binding to interleukin-5 (PubMed:1495999, PubMed:22528658). In unstimulated conditions, interacts constitutively with JAK2. Heterodimeric receptor activation leads to JAK2 stimulation and subsequent activation of the JAK-STAT pathway (PubMed:9516124)

Subcellular location

Membrane
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (16)

Domains & features

Fibronectin type-III 1Fibronectin type-III 2

Gene Ontology

  • Cexternal side of plasma membrane
  • Cextracellular space
  • Cmembrane
  • Cplasma membrane
  • Creceptor complex
  • Fcytokine binding
  • Fcytokine receptor activity
  • Finterleukin-5 receptor activity
  • Pcell surface receptor signaling pathway via JAK-STAT
  • Pcytokine-mediated signaling pathway
  • Pinterleukin-5-mediated signaling pathway
  • Ppositive regulation of cell population proliferation

420 aa · 48 kDa · 5 isoforms

Biological roles

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

Cell proliferation & survivalGOCell migrationUniProtImmune signallingUniProt · GO
View supporting evidence

Cell proliferation & survival

  • ·positive regulation of cell population proliferation

Cell migration

  • ·Cell surface receptor that plays an important role in the survival, differentiation, and…

Immune signalling

  • ·Cell surface receptor that plays an important role in the survival, differentiation, and…
  • ·cytokine binding
  • ·cytokine receptor activity
  • ·interleukin-5 receptor activity

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

Approved medicines with mapped indications

1 medicine · 2 areas

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.

Asthma1 medicine
Lung Diseases, Obstructive1 medicine

Approved indications from ChEMBL (phase-4), via the canonical drug→disease graph.

Drugs targeting this protein

1

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.

benralizumab
Narrow target profileApprovedInhibitor

Interleukin-5 receptor subunit alpha inhibitor

Indicated for Asthma, Lung Diseases, Obstructive

Direct interaction with this protein · Only this protein recorded as a target

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

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 IL5RA

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene IL5RAthat 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.

Asthma
0.76Well supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.61

Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive
0.49Limited support

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.38

Hypereosinophilic syndrome
0.47Limited support

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.37

Nasal Polyps
0.43Limited support

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.35

View evidence synthesis (4)
AsthmaWell supported
0.76
agreement 0.620.89
Clinical86%Literature9%RNA expression5%

Open Targets aggregate 0.61 · 3 independent evidence families

Pulmonary Disease, Chronic ObstructiveLimited support
0.49
agreement 0.330.64
Clinical91%Literature9%

Open Targets aggregate 0.38 · 2 independent evidence families

Hypereosinophilic syndromeLimited support
0.47
agreement 0.320.63
Clinical91%Literature9%

Open Targets aggregate 0.37 · 2 independent evidence families

Nasal PolypsLimited support
0.43
agreement 0.280.59
Clinical96%Literature4%

Open Targets aggregate 0.35 · 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
Asthma0.61
Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive0.38
Hypereosinophilic syndrome0.37
Nasal Polyps0.35

Drug development

1 compounds recorded · 1 approved

Open Targets' development universe — every compound recorded against the target at any stage, not all approved medicines. Distinct from the 1 drug that targets this protein in Forefront's canonical graph (1 with a mapped approved indication, shown above): these count different sets and are not a subset relation.

View all recorded compounds (1)
BENRALIZUMABApproval

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

AntibodiesStrong

Approved Drug and GO CC high conf support this modality.

View underlying tractability evidence (3)
AB · Approved DrugAB · GO CC high confAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMM

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

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. Ranked by active status, then clinical phase and recency, and spread across the targeting drugs.

View all trials (26)

ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.

What's happening now

1

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.

  1. Regulatory approval2018-01-08

    Approval: Fasenra (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via benralizumab

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.