Protein / target

Mesothelin

Encoded byMSLNQ13421Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot

UniProt: Q13421 Ensembl: ENSG00000102854 HGNC: HGNC:7371 NCBI Gene: 10232

Clinical-stage

Therapeutic maturity

Clinical candidates

Antibody-tractable

Druggability

Advanced Clinical

Research papers

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Cell-matrix adhesion

Strongest disease association

Mesothelioma

Via encoding gene MSLN · Literature evidence · score 0.14

Therapeutic position

Clinically advancing target

Antibodies

Research activity

Emerging research

4 papers · latest 2025

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

Membrane-anchored forms may play a role in cellular adhesion

Subcellular location

Cell membraneGolgi apparatusSecreted

Domains and Gene Ontology detail (9)

Gene Ontology

Ccell surface
Cendoplasmic reticulum lumen
Cextracellular region
CGolgi apparatus
Cmembrane
Cplasma membrane
Cside of membrane
Pcell adhesion
Pcell-matrix adhesion

622 aa · 68 kDa · 4 isoforms

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 MSLN

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene MSLNthat 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.

Mesothelioma

0.26Limited support

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.14

Ovarian Neoplasms

0.24Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.13

Neoplasms

0.23Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.14

Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung

0.23Preliminary

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.12

Ovarian carcinoma

0.19Preliminary

Literature evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.12

View evidence synthesis (5)

MesotheliomaLimited support

0.26

agreement 0.10–0.41

Literature50%Clinical50%

Open Targets aggregate 0.14 · 2 independent evidence families

Ovarian NeoplasmsPreliminary

0.24

agreement 0.08–0.39

Literature55%Clinical45%

Open Targets aggregate 0.13 · 2 independent evidence families

NeoplasmsPreliminary

0.23

agreement 0.07–0.38

Literature62%Clinical38%

Open Targets aggregate 0.14 · 2 independent evidence families

Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell LungPreliminary

0.23

agreement 0.09–0.36

Clinical47%Literature45%RNA expression8%

Open Targets aggregate 0.12 · 3 independent evidence families

Ovarian carcinomaPreliminary

0.19

agreement 0.06–0.33

Literature69%Clinical23%RNA expression8%

Open Targets aggregate 0.12 · 3 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

Mesothelioma0.14

Neoplasms0.14

Ovarian Neoplasms0.13

Ovarian carcinoma0.12

Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung0.12

Pancreatic Neoplasms0.11

Colorectal Neoplasms0.11

Malignant pleural mesothelioma0.11

Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute0.11

Drug development

5 compounds recorded · 5 in clinical development

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

View all recorded compounds (5)

SS1(DSFV)-PE38Phase 1 2

ANETUMAB RAVTANSINEPhase 2

LMB-100Phase 2

AMATUXIMABPhase 2

RG-7600Phase 1

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.

Protein degraders — Emerging

Feasibility evidence (database ubiquitination) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

Other modalities — Strong

Advanced Clinical support this modality.

View underlying tractability evidence (7)

AB · Advanced ClinicalAB · GO CC high confAB · UniProt loc med confAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMMAB · Human Protein Atlas locPR · Database UbiquitinationOC · Advanced Clinical

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.