Protein / target
Protein kinase C alpha type
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Diacylglycerol-dependent serine/threonine kinase
Strongest disease association
Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic
Therapeutic position
Established drug target
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Calcium-activated, phospholipid- and diacylglycerol (DAG)-dependent serine/threonine-protein kinase that is involved in positive and negative regulation of cell proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation, migration and adhesion, tumorigenesis, cardiac hypertrophy, angiogenesis, platelet function and…
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Calcium-activated, phospholipid- and diacylglycerol (DAG)-dependent serine/threonine-protein kinase that is involved in positive and negative regulation of cell proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation, migration and adhesion, tumorigenesis, cardiac hypertrophy, angiogenesis, platelet function and inflammation, by directly phosphorylating targets such as RAF1, BCL2, CSPG4, TNNT2/CTNT, or activating signaling cascade involving MAPK1/3 (ERK1/2) and RAP1GAP. Involved in cell proliferation and cell growth arrest by positive and negative regulation of the cell cycle. Can promote cell growth by phosphorylating and activating RAF1, which mediates the activation of the MAPK/ERK signaling cascade, and/or by up-regulating CDKN1A, which facilitates active cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) complex formation in glioma cells. In intestinal cells stimulated by the phorbol ester PMA, can trigger a cell cycle arrest program which is associated with the accumulation of the hyper-phosphorylated growth-suppressive form of RB1 and induction of the CDK inhibitors CDKN1A and CDKN1B. Exhibits anti-apoptotic function in glioma cells and protects them from apoptosis by suppressing the p53/TP53-mediated activation of IGFBP3, and in leukemia cells mediates anti-apoptotic action by phosphorylating BCL2. During macrophage differentiation induced by macrophage colony-stimulating factor (CSF1), is translocated to the nucleus and is associated with macrophage development. After wounding, translocates from focal contacts to lamellipodia and participates in the modulation of desmosomal adhesion. Plays a role in cell motility by phosphorylating CSPG4, which induces association of CSPG4 with extensive lamellipodia at the cell periphery and polarization of the cell accompanied by increases in cell motility. During chemokine-induced CD4(+) T cell migration, phosphorylates CDC42-guanine exchange factor DOCK8 resulting in its dissociation from LRCH1 and the activation of GTPase CDC42 (PubMed:28028151). Is highly expressed in a number of cancer cells where it can act as a tumor promoter and is implicated in malignant phenotypes of several tumors such as gliomas and breast cancers. Negatively regulates myocardial contractility and positively regulates angiogenesis, platelet aggregation and thrombus formation in arteries. Mediates hypertrophic growth of neonatal cardiomyocytes, in part through a MAPK1/3 (ERK1/2)-dependent signaling pathway, and upon PMA treatment, is required to induce cardiomyocyte hypertrophy up to heart failure and death, by increasing protein synthesis, protein-DNA ratio and cell surface area. Regulates cardiomyocyte function by phosphorylating cardiac troponin T (TNNT2/CTNT), which induces significant reduction in actomyosin ATPase activity, myofilament calcium sensitivity and myocardial contractility. In angiogenesis, is required for full endothelial cell migration, adhesion to vitronectin (VTN), and vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA)-dependent regulation of kinase activation and vascular tube formation. Involved in the stabilization of VEGFA mRNA at post-transcriptional level and mediates VEGFA-induced cell proliferation. In the regulation of calcium-induced platelet aggregation, mediates signals from the CD36/GP4 receptor for granule release, and activates the integrin heterodimer ITGA2B-ITGB3 through the RAP1GAP pathway for adhesion. During response to lipopolysaccharides (LPS), may regulate selective LPS-induced macrophage functions involved in host defense and inflammation. But in some inflammatory responses, may negatively regulate NF-kappa-B-induced genes, through IL1A-dependent induction of NF-kappa-B inhibitor alpha (NFKBIA/IKBA). Upon stimulation with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), phosphorylates EIF4G1, which modulates EIF4G1 binding to MKNK1 and may be involved in the regulation of EIF4E phosphorylation. Phosphorylates KIT, leading to inhibition of KIT activity. Phosphorylates ATF2 which promotes cooperation between ATF2 and JUN, activating transcription. Phosphorylates SOCS2 at 'Ser-52' facilitating its ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation (By similarity). Phosphorylates KLHL3 in response to angiotensin II signaling, decreasing the interaction between KLHL3 and WNK4 (PubMed:25313067). Phosphorylates and activates LRRK1, which phosphorylates RAB proteins involved in intracellular trafficking (PubMed:36040231)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (67)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Calphav-beta3 integrin-PKCalpha complex
- Cciliary basal body
- Ccytoplasm
- Ccytosol
- Cendoplasmic reticulum
- Cextracellular exosome
- Cmitochondrial membrane
- Cmitochondrion
- Cnucleoplasm
- Cperinuclear region of cytoplasm
- Cplasma membrane
- FATP binding
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Cell migration
- ·Calcium-activated, phospholipid- and diacylglycerol (DAG)-dependent serine/threonine-pro…
- ·positive regulation of blood vessel endothelial cell migration
- ·positive regulation of cell migration
- ·positive regulation of endothelial cell migration
Cell-cycle regulation
- ·Calcium-activated, phospholipid- and diacylglycerol (DAG)-dependent serine/threonine-pro…
- ·positive regulation of mitotic cell cycle
Synaptic signalling
- ·positive regulation of synapse assembly
Cell proliferation & survival
- ·Calcium-activated, phospholipid- and diacylglycerol (DAG)-dependent serine/threonine-pro…
Oncogenic signalling
- ·Calcium-activated, phospholipid- and diacylglycerol (DAG)-dependent serine/threonine-pro…
Lipid & lipoprotein metabolism
- ·Calcium-activated, phospholipid- and diacylglycerol (DAG)-dependent serine/threonine-pro…
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
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.
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.
Protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor
Indicated for Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute, Mastocytosis, Mastocytosis, Systemic, Neoplasms
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 PRKCA
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene PRKCA 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
This ranking differs from Open Targets' own: re-weighting moves genetically-evidenced diseases above more heavily co-mentioned ones. 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
6 compounds recorded · 1 approved · 5 in clinical development
View all recorded compounds (6)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
View underlying tractability evidence (11)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 a drug that targets 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.
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Rydapt (EMA)
- New publicationEfficacy and safety of midostaurin in patients with advanced systemic mastocytosis: 10-year median follow-up of a phase II trial.
- New publicationEfficacy and Safety of Midostaurin in Advanced Systemic Mastocytosis.
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.