Protein / target
Thyrotropin receptor
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor activity
Primary system
Endocrine & metabolic
Strongest disease association
hypothyroidism
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
2 approved
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function
Receptor for the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) or thyrotropin (PubMed:11847099, PubMed:12045258). Also acts as a receptor for the heterodimeric glycoprotein hormone (GPHA2:GPHB5) or thyrostimulin (PubMed:12045258). TSHR is coupled to G(s) proteins and mediates the activation of adenylate cyclase (PubMed:11847099, PubMed:35940205, PubMed:35940204). This leads to the generation of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), which in turn activates protein kinase A (PKA). PKA subsequently phosphorylates downstream targets involved in thyroid hormone biosynthesis and secretion, including thyroid peroxidase (TPO) and the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) (PubMed:27638195). Additionally, plays a central role in controlling thyroid cell metabolism (By similarity)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (20)Hide
Gene Ontology
- Cbasolateral plasma membrane
- Ccell surface
- Cplasma membrane
- Creceptor complex
- FG protein-coupled peptide receptor activity
- FG protein-coupled receptor activity
- Fprotein-containing complex binding
- Fsignaling receptor activity
- Fthyroid-stimulating hormone receptor activity
- Padenylate cyclase-activating G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway
- Pcell surface receptor signaling pathway
- Pcell-cell signaling
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
G protein-coupled signalling
- ·G protein-coupled peptide receptor activity
- ·G protein-coupled receptor activity
- ·adenylate cyclase-activating G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway
- ·G protein-coupled receptor signaling pathway
Kinase signalling
- ·Receptor for the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) or thyrotropin (PubMed:11847099, PubM…
View underlying pathways (2)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.
Thyroid stimulating hormone receptor agonist
Appears in clinical studies involving hypothyroidism, differentiated thyroid carcinoma, differentiated thyroid carcinoma, toxic multinodular goitre
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 1,459 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 · 2 total
thyroid gland carcinoma · thyroid cancer · thyroid tumor
hypothyroidism · differentiated thyroid carcinoma · differentiated thyroid carcinoma
Tractability
Safety liabilities
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.
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 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 a drug that targets this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.
- New publicationCentral and Peripheral Sensitivity to Thyroid Hormones Correlate to Metabolically Obesity Phenotypes in Chinese Euthyroid Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.
- New publicationPrevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism and longitudinal thyroid-stimulating hormone changes in youth with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: An observational study.
- New publicationThyroid Hormone Homeostasis in Levothyroxine-treated Patients: Findings From ELSA-Brasil.
- New publicationAssociations between sensitivity to thyroid hormones and insulin resistance in euthyroid adults with obesity.
- New publicationImplications of GLP-1 Receptor Agonist on Thyroid Function: A Literature Review of Its Effects on Thyroid Volume, Risk of Cancer, Functionality and TSH Levels.
- New publicationMulti-trait analysis characterizes the genetics of thyroid function and identifies causal associations with clinical implications.
- New publicationSubclinical Hypothyroidism in Patients with Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome: A Narrative Review.
- New publicationPredictors of controlled attenuation parameter in metabolic dysfunction.
- New publicationEffects of vitamin D supplementation on metabolic parameters, serum irisin and obesity values in women with subclinical hypothyroidism: a double-blind randomized controlled trial.
- New publicationEnvironmental Endocrinology: Parabens Hazardous Effects on Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Thyroid Axis.
- New publicationThyroid hormone sensitivity and diabetes onset: a longitudinal cross-lagged cohort.
- New publicationThyroid Stimulating Hormone and Thyroid Hormones (Triiodothyronine and Thyroxine): An American Thyroid Association-Commissioned Review of Current Clinical and Laboratory Status.
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.