Protein / target
Tubulin beta-3 chain
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Structural constituent of cytoskeleton
Primary system
Nervous system
Strongest disease association
complex cortical dysplasia with other brain malformations 1
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
25 approved · 62 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
Tubulin is the major constituent of microtubules, protein filaments consisting of alpha- and beta-tubulin heterodimers (PubMed:34996871, PubMed:38305685, PubMed:38609661). Microtubules grow by the addition of GTP-tubulin dimers to the microtubule end, where a stabilizing cap forms (PubMed:34996871, PubMed:38305685, PubMed:38609661). Below the cap, alpha-beta tubulin heterodimers are in GDP-bound state, owing to GTPase activity of alpha-tubulin (PubMed:34996871, PubMed:38609661). TUBB3 plays a critical role in proper axon guidance and maintenance (PubMed:20074521). Binding of NTN1/Netrin-1 to its receptor UNC5C might cause dissociation of UNC5C from polymerized TUBB3 in microtubules and thereby lead to increased microtubule dynamics and axon repulsion (PubMed:28483977). Plays a role in dorsal root ganglion axon projection towards the spinal cord (PubMed:28483977)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (28)Hide
Gene Ontology
- Caxon
- Ccell periphery
- Cciliary tip
- Ccilium
- Ccytoplasm
- Cdendrite
- Cextracellular exosome
- Cfilopodium
- Cgrowth cone
- Cintercellular bridge
- Clamellipodium
- Cmicrotubule
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Nuclear receptor signalling
- ·HSP90 chaperone cycle for steroid hormone receptors (SHR) in the presence of ligand
Immune signalling
- ·MHC class II antigen presentation
View underlying pathways (25)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.
Tubulin inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving familial Mediterranean fever, gout, myocardial infarction, Stroke
Tubulin inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, neoplasm
Tubulin inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving non-small cell lung carcinoma, breast carcinoma, breast cancer, carcinoma
Tubulin inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving cervical cancer, cervical cancer, cancer, neoplasm
Tubulin inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving breast carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, breast cancer, prostate cancer
Tubulin inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving urothelial carcinoma, transitional cell carcinoma, neoplasm, urinary bladder carcinoma
Tubulin inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving ovarian cancer, ovarian neoplasm, fallopian tube neoplasm, peritoneal neoplasm
Tubulin inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving non-small cell lung carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, squamous cell lung carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma
Tubulin inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving plasma cell myeloma, neoplasm, hematopoietic and lymphoid cell neoplasm, smoldering plasma cell myeloma
Tubulin disrupting agent
Appears in clinical studies involving breast cancer, urothelial carcinoma, gastric adenocarcinoma, gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma
Tubulin inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving neoplasm, urothelial carcinoma, breast cancer, urogenital neoplasm
Tubulin inhibitor
Appears in clinical studies involving prostate cancer, breast cancer, prostate neoplasm, neoplasm
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.
Show all associationsHide all associations
Open Targets ranks 1,073 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 · 88 total
neoplasm
non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell squamous lung carcinoma
thyroid cancer · lymphoma
glioblastoma · melanoma
plasma cell myeloma
malignant pleural mesothelioma · mesothelioma · lung adenocarcinoma
triple-negative breast carcinoma · breast cancer
diffuse large B-cell lymphoma · follicular lymphoma · diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
plasma cell myeloma
non-small cell lung carcinoma · non-small cell lung carcinoma · squamous cell lung carcinoma
Tractability
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.
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 10 drugs that target this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.
- Trial results posted
Cemiplimab in High-risk or Locally Advanced Luminal and Triple Negative Breast Cancer (CemiHALT )
- Trial status changed
Phase II Study Of Combination Ruxolitinib (INCB018424) With Preoperative Chemotherapy For Triple Negative Inflammatory Breast Cancer
- Trial results posted
A Phase 3, Randomized Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Pembrolizumab (MK-3475) + Lenvatinib (E7080/MK-7902) + Chemotherapy Compared With Standard of Care as First-line Intervention in Participants With Metastatic Esophageal Carcinoma.
- Trial status changed
A Phase 3, Randomized Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Pembrolizumab (MK-3475) + Lenvatinib (E7080/MK-7902) + Chemotherapy Compared With Standard of Care as First-line Intervention in Participants With Metastatic Esophageal Carcinoma.
- Trial status changed
A Phase 1b Open-Label Study to Evaluate the Safety and Anti-cancer Activity of Loncastuximab Tesirine in Combination With Other Anti-cancer Agents in Patients With Relapsed or Refractory B-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (LOTIS-7)
- Indication expanded
Indication expansion: ENFORTUMAB VEDOTIN (BLA761137)
- CHMP positive opinion
CHMP positive opinion: Colchicine Agepha Pharma (EMA)
- Indication expanded
Indication expansion: ENFORTUMAB VEDOTIN (BLA761137)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Blenrep (EMA)
- Regulatory approval
Approval: Tivdak (EMA)
- New publicationPembrolizumab Plus Docetaxel Versus Docetaxel for Previously Treated Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: The Randomized, Double-Blind, Phase III KEYNOTE-921 Trial.
- Label change
Label change: ENFORTUMAB VEDOTIN (BLA761137)
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.