Protein / target
Retinoic acid receptor beta
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Sequence-specific double-stranded DNA binding
Strongest disease association
microphthalmia, syndromic 12
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
7 approved · 3 in clinical development
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function
Receptor for retinoic acid. Retinoic acid receptors bind as heterodimers to their target response elements in response to their ligands, all-trans or 9-cis retinoic acid, and regulate gene expression in various biological processes. The RXR/RAR heterodimers bind to the retinoic acid response elements (RARE) composed of tandem 5'-AGGTCA-3' sites known as DR1-DR5. In the absence or presence of hormone ligand, acts mainly as an activator of gene expression due to weak binding to corepressors (PubMed:12554770). The RXRA/RARB heterodimer can act as a repressor on the DR1 element and as an activator on the DR5 element (PubMed:29021580). In concert with RARG, required for skeletal growth, matrix homeostasis and growth plate function (By similarity)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (19)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Cchromatin
- Ccytoplasm
- Cnucleoplasm
- Cnucleus
- CRNA polymerase II transcription regulator complex
- FDNA binding
- FDNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
- Fnuclear receptor activity
- FRNA polymerase II cis-regulatory region sequence-specific DNA binding
- Fsequence-specific double-stranded DNA binding
- Fzinc ion binding
- Pcell differentiation
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Transcriptional regulation
- ·Receptor for retinoic acid. Retinoic acid receptors bind as heterodimers to their target…
- ·RNA polymerase II transcription regulator complex
- ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
- ·RNA polymerase II cis-regulatory region sequence-specific DNA binding
Nuclear receptor signalling
- ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
- ·nuclear receptor activity
- ·Nuclear Receptor transcription pathway
View underlying pathways (3)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.
Drugs targeting this protein
Whether each drug engages this protein directly or through a complex, and how many other targets are recorded for it. Direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.
Retinoic acid receptor agonist
Appears in clinical studies involving acne, acne, glioma, renal cell carcinoma
Retinoic acid receptor agonist
Appears in clinical studies involving hyperpigmentation of the skin, acne, acute promyelocytic leukemia, freckles
ChEMBL mechanism, action type and target identity. Open Targets clinical status and indications.
Translational evidence
Why this target matters therapeutically — disease associations, drugs in development, tractability and safety, from Open Targets.
Strongest genetic associations
Human genetic evidence — the most direct causal link between this target and a disease.
Highest-confidence therapeutic associations
Diseases where a drug acting on this target has already reached clinical development.
Highest overall evidence
Remaining associations by Open Targets' aggregated evidence score.
Show all associationsHide all associations
Open Targets ranks 3,177 associations for this target and we store the top 10 by aggregated score. The long tail is largely literature co-mention and RNA-expression evidence, not evidence that this target drives those diseases.
Known drugs · 10 total
acne · acne · glioma
Kaposi's sarcoma · Eczematoid dermatitis · Kaposi's sarcoma
psoriasis · psoriasis vulgaris · hand eczema
hyperpigmentation of the skin · acne · acute promyelocytic leukemia
psoriasis vulgaris
myelodysplastic syndrome · Alzheimer disease · tropical spastic paraparesis
psoriasis · keratosis
psoriasis vulgaris · acne · psoriasis
acne · acne · molluscum contagiosum
Tractability
Safety liabilities
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.
Show remaining trials (24)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
Forefront confidence
Our own weighting of the evidence behind each disease association. Human genetics and clinical evidence count for most; literature co-mention counts for little, because two entities sharing an abstract is not evidence that one drives the other.
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 underlying per-type scores are shown above so the calculation can be checked.
What's happening now
Recent activity around this target, drawn from one canonical event stream. Every item is reached through 2 drugs that target this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.
- Label change
Label change: ISOTRETINOIN (ANDA213571)
- Label change
Label change: ISOTRETINOIN (NDA211913)
- Label change
Label change: ISOTRETINOIN (NDA021951)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: TRETINOIN (ANDA214590)
- Supplemental approval
Supplemental approval: ISOTRETINOIN (NDA211913)
- Supplemental approval
Supplemental approval: ISOTRETINOIN (ANDA213571)
- Supplemental approval
Supplemental approval: ISOTRETINOIN (NDA021951)
- New publicationDifferentiation of SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells using retinoic acid and BDNF: a model for neuronal and synaptic differentiation in neurodegeneration.
- Label change
Label change: ISOTRETINOIN (NDA021951)
- New publicationGuidelines of care for the management of acne vulgaris.
- New publicationRisk of Suicide and Psychiatric Disorders Among Isotretinoin Users: A Meta-Analysis.
- New publicationEffect of isotretinoin on CYP2D6 and CYP3A activity in patients with severe acne.
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.