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Protein / target

Myosin light chain 4

Encoded byMYL4P12829Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Clinically validated
Therapeutic maturity
2
Approved medicines
Open Targets target-level
View by indication →
30
Clinical trials
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Approved Drug

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Myosin II heavy chain binding

Strongest disease association

Atrial Fibrillation

Via encoding gene MYL4 · Genetic evidence · score 0.81

Therapeutic position

Established drug target

Small molecules

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

Regulatory light chain of myosin.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Regulatory light chain of myosin. Does not bind calcium

Domains and Gene Ontology detail (12)

Domains & features

EF-hand 1EF-hand 2

Gene Ontology

  • CA band
  • Ccytosol
  • Cmyosin II complex
  • Factin filament binding
  • Factin monomer binding
  • Fcalcium ion binding
  • Fmyosin II heavy chain binding
  • Pcardiac muscle contraction
  • Pmuscle contraction
  • Pregulation of the force of heart contraction

197 aa · 22 kDa

Biological roles

Reactome v97

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

Muscle contractionGO · Reactome
View supporting evidence

Muscle contraction

  • ·cardiac muscle contraction
  • ·muscle contraction
  • ·Striated Muscle Contraction
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.

MYH7MYL2MYH6MYL3ACTC1MYLK2MYLK4MYLK3MYLKMYLPFMYL4

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.

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.

Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic1 medicine
Broader indication categories (1)
Cardiovascular Diseases1 medicine

Broad umbrella indications (e.g. “Neoplasms”). Shown here because every medicine also appears under a more specific disease above — kept for completeness, de-emphasised for clarity.

2 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 1 shown here are those on this page with a canonical approved disease indication in the graph. Approved indications from ChEMBL (phase-4), via the canonical drug→disease graph.

Drugs targeting this protein

2

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.

omecamtiv mecarbil
ApprovedActivator

Cardiac myosin activator

Acts on a complex — shared with MYH7, MYH6, MYH7B +3 more · 1 of 7 recorded protein targets

mavacamten
ApprovedInhibitor

Cardiac myosin inhibitor

Indicated for Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic, Cardiovascular Diseases

Acts on a complex — shared with MYH7, MYH6, MYH7B +3 more · 1 of 7 recorded protein targets

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 MYL4

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene MYL4 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.

Atrial Fibrillation
0.83Well supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.70

Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic
0.71Moderately supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.58

Cardiovascular Diseases
0.57Moderately supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.46

Heart Failure
0.48Limited support

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.39

Cardiomyopathy, Dilated
0.27Limited support

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.21

View evidence synthesis (5)
Atrial FibrillationWell supported
0.83
agreement 0.690.97
Genetic88%Literature12%Genetic literaturedup

Open Targets aggregate 0.70 · 2 independent evidence families · 1 not counted as duplicate

Cardiomyopathy, HypertrophicModerately supported
0.71
agreement 0.560.87
Clinical99%Literature2%

Open Targets aggregate 0.58 · 2 independent evidence families

Cardiovascular DiseasesModerately supported
0.57
agreement 0.420.73
Clinical100%Literature0%

Open Targets aggregate 0.46 · 2 independent evidence families

Heart FailureLimited support
0.48
agreement 0.330.64
Clinical98%Literature2%

Open Targets aggregate 0.39 · 2 independent evidence families

Cardiomyopathy, DilatedLimited support
0.27
agreement 0.110.42
Clinical98%Literature2%

Open Targets aggregate 0.21 · 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
Atrial Fibrillation0.70
Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic0.58
Cardiovascular Diseases0.46
Heart Failure0.39
Cardiomyopathy, Dilated0.21

Drug development

3 compounds recorded · 2 approved · 1 in clinical development

Open Targets' development universe — every compound recorded against the target at any stage, not all approved medicines. Distinct from the 2 drugs that target 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 (3)
MAVACAMTENApproval
DANICAMTIVPhase 2 3
OMECAMTIV MECARBILApproval

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

Small moleculesStrong

Approved Drug support this modality.

AntibodiesEmerging

Feasibility evidence (human protein atlas loc) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

View underlying tractability evidence (2)
SM · Approved DrugAB · Human Protein Atlas loc

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

2

Recent therapeutic activity around this target — regulatory actions, clinical trials and safety signals for 2 drugs that target 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 approval2023-06-26

    Approval: Camzyos (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via mavacamten

  2. New publication2020-11-13
    Cardiac Myosin Activation with Omecamtiv Mecarbil in Systolic Heart Failure.

    The New England journal of medicine · 2021 · 443 citations · Europe PMC · via omecamtiv mecarbil

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.