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Protein / target

Interleukin-9

Encoded byIL9P15248Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
UniProt: P15248Ensembl: ENSG00000145839HGNC: HGNC:6029NCBI Gene: 3578
Clinical-stage
Therapeutic maturity
1
Clinical candidates
Antibody-tractable
Druggability
Advanced Clinical
1
Research papers

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Interleukin-9 receptor binding

Strongest disease association

Sjogren's Syndrome

Via encoding gene IL9 · Genetic evidence · score 0.46

Therapeutic position

Clinically advancing target

Antibodies

Research activity

Emerging research

1 papers · latest 2023

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

Multifunctional cytokine secreted mainly by T-helper 2 lymphocytes and also mast cells or NKT cells that plays important roles in the immune response against parasites.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Multifunctional cytokine secreted mainly by T-helper 2 lymphocytes and also mast cells or NKT cells that plays important roles in the immune response against parasites (PubMed:29742432). Affects intestinal epithelial permeability and adaptive immunity (PubMed:29742432). In addition, induces the differentiation of specific T-cell subsets such as IL-17 producing helper T-cells (TH17) and also proliferation and differentiation of mast cells. Mechanistically, exerts its biological effects through a receptor composed of IL9R subunit and a signal transducing subunit IL2RG. Receptor stimulation results in the rapid activation of JAK1 and JAK3 kinase activities leading to STAT1, STAT3 and STAT5-mediated transcriptional programs. Induction of differentiation genes seems to be mediated by STAT1 alone, while protection of cells from apoptosis depends on STAT3 and STAT5

Subcellular location

Secreted
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (11)

Gene Ontology

  • Cextracellular region
  • Cextracellular space
  • Fcytokine activity
  • Fgrowth factor activity
  • Finterleukin-9 receptor binding
  • Pimmune response
  • Pinflammatory response
  • Pinterleukin-9-mediated signaling pathway
  • Ppositive regulation of cell growth
  • Ppositive regulation of cell population proliferation
  • Ppositive regulation of interleukin-5 production

144 aa · 16 kDa

Biological roles

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

Cell proliferation & survivalGOImmune signallingUniProt · GO
View supporting evidence

Cell proliferation & survival

  • ·positive regulation of cell population proliferation

Immune signalling

  • ·Multifunctional cytokine secreted mainly by T-helper 2 lymphocytes and also mast cells o…
  • ·cytokine activity
  • ·interleukin-9 receptor binding
  • ·immune 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 IL9

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene IL9 that 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.

Sjogren's Syndrome
0.46Limited support

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.28

Neurodegenerative Diseases
0.27Preliminary

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

Asthma
0.23Preliminary

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.13

Neoplasms
0.15Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.12 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Arthritis, Rheumatoid
0.14Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.11 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

View evidence synthesis (5)
Sjogren's SyndromeLimited support
0.46
agreement 0.32–0.60
Genetic98%Literature3%

Open Targets aggregate 0.28 · 2 independent evidence families

Neurodegenerative DiseasesPreliminary
0.27
agreement 0.09–0.44
Pathway99%Literature1%

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

AsthmaPreliminary
0.23
agreement 0.07–0.39
Clinical54%Literature46%

Open Targets aggregate 0.13 · 2 independent evidence families

NeoplasmsPreliminary
0.15
agreement 0.00–0.42
Literature100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.12 · 1 independent evidence family · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Arthritis, RheumatoidPreliminary
0.14
agreement 0.00–0.41
Literature100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.11 · 1 independent evidence family · no direct causal or clinical evidence

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 per-type scores above show the calculation.

Show all associations
Neurodegenerative Diseases0.40
Sjogren's Syndrome0.28
Asthma0.13
Neoplasms0.12
Arthritis, Rheumatoid0.11
Infections0.11
Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic0.11
Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell0.11
Scleroderma, Systemic0.10

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)
ENOKIZUMABPhase 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

Antibodies — Strong

Advanced Clinical and GO CC high conf support this modality.

View underlying tractability evidence (4)
AB · Advanced ClinicalAB · GO CC high confAB · UniProt loc med confAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMM

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Research activity

1 papers · to 2023

Papers linked directly to this protein. This is the protein's own literature — descriptor-derived papers are kept separate below.

Most cited

Circulating inflammatory cytokines and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study.12 cites

Guan S · Frontiers in immunology · 2023

Recent

Circulating inflammatory cytokines and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study.

Guan S · Frontiers in immunology · 2023

Europe PMC papers linked directly to this protein.