Protein / target
Mucin-4
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Extracellular matrix constituent, lubricant
Strongest disease association
Ovarian dysfunction
Research activity
Emerging research
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Membrane-bound mucin, a family of highly glycosylated proteins that constitute the major component of the mucus, the slimy and viscous secretion covering epithelial surfaces.
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Membrane-bound mucin, a family of highly glycosylated proteins that constitute the major component of the mucus, the slimy and viscous secretion covering epithelial surfaces (PubMed:10880978). These glycoproteins play important roles in the protection of the epithelium and are implicated in epithelial renewal and differentiation (PubMed:10880978). Regulates cellular behavior through both anti-adhesive effects on cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions and its ability to act as an intramembrane ligand for ERBB2. Plays an important role in proliferation and differentiation of epithelial cells by inducing specific phosphorylation of ERBB2. In polarized epithelial cells, segregates ERBB2 and other ERBB receptors and prevents ERBB2 from acting as a coreceptor. The interaction with ERBB2 leads to enhanced expression of CDKN1B. The formation of a MUC4-ERBB2-ERBB3-NRG1 complex leads to down-regulation of CDKN1B, resulting in repression of apoptosis and stimulation of proliferation. Its ability to promote tumor growth may be mainly due to repression of apoptosis as opposed to proliferation
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (16)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Cextracellular exosome
- Cextracellular matrix
- Cextracellular space
- CGolgi lumen
- Cmembrane
- Cplasma membrane
- Cvesicle
- FErbB-2 class receptor binding
- Fextracellular matrix constituent, lubricant activity
- Pcell-matrix adhesion
- Pmaintenance of gastrointestinal epithelium
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Receptor tyrosine kinase signalling
- ·Membrane-bound mucin, a family of highly glycosylated proteins that constitute the major…
- ·ErbB-2 class receptor binding
Cell adhesion
- ·Membrane-bound mucin, a family of highly glycosylated proteins that constitute the major…
- ·extracellular matrix
- ·extracellular matrix constituent, lubricant activity
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Translational evidence
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 MUC4
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene MUC4that 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.
View evidence synthesis (5)Hide
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.
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Tractability
Antibodies — Emerging
View underlying tractability evidence (4)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
Research activity
Papers linked directly to this protein. This is the protein's own literature — descriptor-derived papers are kept separate below.
Most cited
Recent
Europe PMC papers linked directly to this protein.
Related family literature
Papers about “Mucins” — a broader family this protein belongs to. Shown as context; not counted as papers specifically about this protein.
via Mucins
via Mucins
Europe PMC literature, reached through curated HGNC family membership. Membership is a taxonomic relationship — it does not imply this protein participates in every mechanism these papers discuss.