Protein / target

Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor 2DL1

KIR2DL1P43626Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Clinical-stage
Therapeutic maturity
2
Clinical candidates
11
Clinical trials
Antibody-tractable
Druggability
Advanced Clinical

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Transmembrane signaling receptor activity

Strongest disease association

keratoconus

Genetic evidence · score 0.18

Therapeutic maturity

Clinical-stage target

2 candidates in clinical development

Druggability

Antibody

Open Targets tractability · Advanced Clinical

Clinical development

2 in clinical development

11 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

Receptor on natural killer (NK) cells for some HLA-C alleles such as w4 and w6. Inhibits the activity of NK cells thus preventing cell lysis

Subcellular location

Cell membrane
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (9)

Domains & features

Ig-like C2-type 1Ig-like C2-type 2

Gene Ontology

  • Cplasma membrane
  • Fimmune receptor activity
  • Fsignaling receptor activity
  • Ftransmembrane signaling receptor activity
  • Pimmune response
  • Pimmune response-inhibiting cell surface receptor signaling pathway
  • Pnatural killer cell inhibitory signaling pathway

348 aa · 39 kDa · 2 isoforms

Biological roles

Reactome v97

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

Immune signallingGO
View supporting evidence

Immune signalling

  • ·immune response
  • ·immune response-inhibiting cell surface receptor signaling pathway
View underlying pathways (1)

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.

KIR2DL3HLA-CKLRD1KIR3DL1KIR3DL2KIR3DL3KLRC1KLRC2HLA-BHLA-AKIR2DL1

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.

lirilumab
Narrow target profilePhase 2Inhibitor

Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor 2DL1 inhibitor

Appears in clinical studies involving acute myeloid leukemia by FAB classification, B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, acute myeloid leukemia

Direct interaction with this protein · 1 of 3 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.

keratoconus0.18

Genetic · overall 0.11

Highest-confidence therapeutic associations

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

plasma cell myeloma0.18

Clinical · overall 0.11

acute myeloid leukemia0.16

Clinical · overall 0.11

myelodysplastic syndrome0.15

Clinical · overall 0.10

B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia0.15

Clinical · overall 0.10

acute myeloid leukemia by FAB classification0.15

Clinical · overall 0.09

Highest overall evidence

Remaining associations by Open Targets' aggregated evidence score.

breast cancer0.09

Literature

endometriosis0.08

Literature

head and neck squamous cell carcinoma0.07

Clinical

esophageal squamous cell carcinoma0.07

Literature

Show all associations
keratoconus0.11
plasma cell myeloma0.11
acute myeloid leukemia0.11
myelodysplastic syndrome0.10
B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia0.10
acute myeloid leukemia by FAB classification0.09
breast cancer0.09
endometriosis0.08
head and neck squamous cell carcinoma0.07
esophageal squamous cell carcinoma0.07

Open Targets ranks 168 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 · 2 total

IPH-2101Phase 2

plasma cell myeloma · acute myeloid leukemia

LIRILUMABPhase 2

acute myeloid leukemia by FAB classification · B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia · myelodysplastic syndrome

Tractability

AB · Advanced ClinicalAB · UniProt loc high confAB · GO CC high confAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMM

Clinical trials

11

Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein.

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.

keratoconusPreliminary
0.18
agreement 0.060.30
Genetic100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.11 · 1 independent evidence family

acute myeloid leukemiaPreliminary
0.16
agreement 0.000.31
Clinical73%Literature27%

Open Targets aggregate 0.11 · 2 independent evidence families

plasma cell myelomaPreliminary
0.14
agreement 0.000.30
Clinical92%Literature8%

Open Targets aggregate 0.11 · 2 independent evidence families

myelodysplastic syndromePreliminary
0.13
agreement 0.000.28
Clinical88%Literature12%

Open Targets aggregate 0.10 · 2 independent evidence families

B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemiaPreliminary
0.13
agreement 0.000.28
Clinical89%Literature11%

Open Targets aggregate 0.10 · 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 underlying per-type scores are shown above so the calculation can be checked.

What's happening now

1

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. New publication2024-01-07
    Structural basis for the activity and specificity of the immune checkpoint inhibitor lirilumab.

    Scientific reports · 2024 · 7 citations · Europe PMC · via lirilumab

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.