Protein / target
Prostaglandin G/H synthase 2
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase
Strongest disease association
Arthritis, Rheumatoid
Therapeutic position
Established drug target
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
Dual cyclooxygenase and peroxidase in the biosynthesis pathway of prostanoids, a class of C20 oxylipins mainly derived from arachidonate ((5Z,8Z,11Z,14Z)-eicosatetraenoate, AA, C20:4(n-6)), with a particular role in the inflammatory response.
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Dual cyclooxygenase and peroxidase in the biosynthesis pathway of prostanoids, a class of C20 oxylipins mainly derived from arachidonate ((5Z,8Z,11Z,14Z)-eicosatetraenoate, AA, C20:4(n-6)), with a particular role in the inflammatory response (PubMed:11939906, PubMed:16373578, PubMed:19540099, PubMed:22942274, PubMed:26859324, PubMed:27226593, PubMed:7592599, PubMed:7947975, PubMed:9261177). The cyclooxygenase activity oxygenates AA to the hydroperoxy endoperoxide prostaglandin G2 (PGG2), and the peroxidase activity reduces PGG2 to the hydroxy endoperoxide prostaglandin H2 (PGH2), the precursor of all 2-series prostaglandins and thromboxanes (PubMed:16373578, PubMed:22942274, PubMed:26859324, PubMed:27226593, PubMed:7592599, PubMed:7947975, PubMed:9261177). This complex transformation is initiated by abstraction of hydrogen at carbon 13 (with S-stereochemistry), followed by insertion of molecular O2 to form the endoperoxide bridge between carbon 9 and 11 that defines prostaglandins. The insertion of a second molecule of O2 (bis-oxygenase activity) yields a hydroperoxy group in PGG2 that is then reduced to PGH2 by two electrons (PubMed:16373578, PubMed:22942274, PubMed:26859324, PubMed:27226593, PubMed:7592599, PubMed:7947975, PubMed:9261177). Similarly catalyzes successive cyclooxygenation and peroxidation of dihomo-gamma-linoleate (DGLA, C20:3(n-6)) and eicosapentaenoate (EPA, C20:5(n-3)) to corresponding PGH1 and PGH3, the precursors of 1- and 3-series prostaglandins (PubMed:11939906, PubMed:19540099). In an alternative pathway of prostanoid biosynthesis, converts 2-arachidonoyl lysophopholipids to prostanoid lysophopholipids, which are then hydrolyzed by intracellular phospholipases to release free prostanoids (PubMed:27642067). Metabolizes 2-arachidonoyl glycerol yielding the glyceryl ester of PGH2, a process that can contribute to pain response (PubMed:22942274). Generates lipid mediators from n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) via a lipoxygenase-type mechanism. Oxygenates PUFAs to hydroperoxy compounds and then reduces them to corresponding alcohols (PubMed:11034610, PubMed:11192938, PubMed:9048568, PubMed:9261177). Plays a role in the generation of resolution phase interaction products (resolvins) during both sterile and infectious inflammation (PubMed:12391014). Metabolizes docosahexaenoate (DHA, C22:6(n-3)) to 17R-HDHA, a precursor of the D-series resolvins (RvDs) (PubMed:12391014). As a component of the biosynthetic pathway of E-series resolvins (RvEs), converts eicosapentaenoate (EPA, C20:5(n-3)) primarily to 18S-HEPE that is further metabolized by ALOX5 and LTA4H to generate 18S-RvE1 and 18S-RvE2 (PubMed:21206090). In vascular endothelial cells, converts docosapentaenoate (DPA, C22:5(n-3)) to 13R-HDPA, a precursor for 13-series resolvins (RvTs) shown to activate macrophage phagocytosis during bacterial infection (PubMed:26236990). In activated leukocytes, contributes to oxygenation of hydroxyeicosatetraenoates (HETE) to diHETES (5,15-diHETE and 5,11-diHETE) (PubMed:22068350, PubMed:26282205). Can also use linoleate (LA, (9Z,12Z)-octadecadienoate, C18:2(n-6)) as substrate and produce hydroxyoctadecadienoates (HODEs) in a regio- and stereospecific manner, being (9R)-HODE ((9R)-hydroxy-(10E,12Z)-octadecadienoate) and (13S)-HODE ((13S)-hydroxy-(9Z,11E)-octadecadienoate) its major products (By similarity). During neuroinflammation, plays a role in neuronal secretion of specialized preresolving mediators (SPMs) 15R-lipoxin A4 that regulates phagocytic microglia (By similarity)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (37)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Ccytoplasm
- Cendoplasmic reticulum
- Cendoplasmic reticulum lumen
- Cendoplasmic reticulum membrane
- Cneuron projection
- Cnuclear inner membrane
- Cnuclear outer membrane
- Fenzyme binding
- Fheme binding
- Fmetal ion binding
- Foxidoreductase activity, acting on single donors with incorporation of molecular oxygen
- Foxidoreductase activity, acting on single donors with incorporation of molecular oxygen, incorporation of two atoms of oxygen
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Lipid & lipoprotein metabolism
- ·Dual cyclooxygenase and peroxidase in the biosynthesis pathway of prostanoids, a class o…
- ·long-chain fatty acid biosynthetic process
Growth-factor signalling
- ·positive regulation of fibroblast growth factor production
Cell migration
- ·positive regulation of cell migration involved in sprouting angiogenesis
Immune signalling
- ·Dual cyclooxygenase and peroxidase in the biosynthesis pathway of prostanoids, a class o…
- ·brown fat cell differentiation
- ·positive regulation of brown fat cell differentiation
- ·regulation of inflammatory response
View underlying pathways (8)Hide underlying pathways
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Interaction neighbourhood
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.
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
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.
Broader indication categories (1)Hide
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.
68 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 12 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
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.
Cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor
Indicated for Arthritis, Rheumatoid, Osteoarthritis, Rheumatic Diseases
Cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor
Indicated for Rheumatic Diseases
Cyclooxygenase inhibitor
Indicated for Arthritis, Back Pain, Common Cold, Coronary Artery Disease
Cyclooxygenase inhibitor
Indicated for Acute Pain, Arthritis, Rheumatoid, Cataract, Eye Diseases
Cyclooxygenase inhibitor
Indicated for Acute Pain, Arthritis, Gouty, Arthritis, Rheumatoid, Eye Diseases
Cyclooxygenase inhibitor
Indicated for Acute Pain, Arthritis, Arthritis, Juvenile, Arthritis, Rheumatoid
View all 12 targeting drugsHide
Cyclooxygenase inhibitor
Indicated for Acute Pain, Arthritis, Back Pain, Common Cold
Cyclooxygenase inhibitor
Indicated for Arthritis, Rheumatoid, Eye Diseases, Osteoarthritis, Rheumatic Diseases
Cyclooxygenase inhibitor
Indicated for Arthritis, Rheumatoid, Fever, Osteoarthritis, Pain
Cyclooxygenase inhibitor
Indicated for Arthritis, Juvenile, Arthritis, Rheumatoid, Colitis, Ulcerative
ChEMBL mechanism, action type, target identity and approved indications. Open Targets clinical status.
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 PTGS2
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene PTGS2 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.
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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Drug development
79 compounds recorded · 68 approved · 6 in clinical development · 5 earlier-stage
View all recorded compounds (10)Hide
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 molecules — Strong
Antibodies — Emerging
Protein degraders — Emerging
Other modalities — Strong
View underlying tractability evidence (9)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
Safety-related annotations
Terms indexed against this target in Open Targets' safety data, with their datasource. These are annotations, not causal claims: the direction of effect (whether activation or inhibition is implicated), species and evidence strength are not captured here, so an entry does not mean that modulating this target is known to cause that condition.
Clinical trials
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)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
What's happening now
Recent therapeutic activity around this target — regulatory actions, clinical trials and safety signals for 5 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.
- Supplemental approval
Supplemental approval: IBUPROFEN (ANDA210149)
- Trial status changed
The Role of Thomboxane A2 and it's Receptor in Vascular Regulation in Women With Endometriosis
- Trial status changed
Clopidogrel Plus Aspirin in Acute Ischemic Stroke Following Thrombectomy and/or Intravenous Thrombolysis (CoPrime): A Randomized Pilot Study
- Supplemental approval
Supplemental approval: ACETAMINOPHEN AND CODEINE (ANDA040779)
- Supplemental approval
Supplemental approval: ACETAMINOPHEN AND CODEINE PHOSPHATE (ANDA040419)
- Supplemental approval
Supplemental approval: ACETAMINOPHEN AND CODEINE PHOSPHATE (ANDA087508)
- Product recall
Recall (Class III): IBUPROFEN
- New publicationCardiovascular/anti-inflammatory drugs repurposed for treating or preventing cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials.
- Safety communication
Drug Safety Update: Aceclofenac (Preservex): updated cardiovascular advice in line with diclofenac and COX-2 inhibitors
- Safety communication
Drug Safety Update: Diclofenac: new contraindications and warnings
- Safety communication
Drug Safety Update: Diclofenac: public consultation on availability as a pharmacy medicine
- New publicationDiagnosis, treatment, and long-term management of Kawasaki disease: a statement for health professionals from the Committee on Rheumatic Fever, Endocarditis and Kawasaki Disease, Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young, American Heart Association.
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.
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.