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Protein / target

Tyrosine 3-monooxygenase

Encoded byTHP07101Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Clinically validated
Therapeutic maturity
1
Approved medicines
Open Targets target-level
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Approved Drug
2
Research papers

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Tyrosine 3-monooxygenase

Strongest disease association

Dystonic Disorders

Via encoding gene TH · Genetic evidence · score 0.69

Therapeutic position

Established drug target

Small molecules

Research activity

Emerging research

2 papers · latest 2021

Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.

Protein profile

UniProt 2026_02

Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.

Function overview

Catalyzes the conversion of L-tyrosine to L-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-Dopa), the rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis of catecholamines, dopamine, noradrenaline, and adrenaline.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Catalyzes the conversion of L-tyrosine to L-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-Dopa), the rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis of catecholamines, dopamine, noradrenaline, and adrenaline. Uses tetrahydrobiopterin and molecular oxygen to convert tyrosine to L-Dopa (PubMed:15287903, PubMed:1680128, PubMed:17391063, PubMed:24753243, PubMed:34922205, PubMed:8528210, Ref.18). In addition to tyrosine, is able to catalyze the hydroxylation of phenylalanine and tryptophan with lower specificity (By similarity). Positively regulates the regression of retinal hyaloid vessels during postnatal development (By similarity)

Subcellular location

Cytoplasm, perinuclear regionNucleusCell projection, axonCytoplasmCytoplasmic vesicle, secretory vesicle, synaptic vesicle
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (39)

Gene Ontology

  • Caxon
  • Ccytoplasm
  • Ccytoplasmic side of plasma membrane
  • Ccytoplasmic vesicle
  • Ccytosol
  • Cmelanosome membrane
  • Cneuron projection
  • Cnucleus
  • Cperikaryon
  • Cperinuclear region of cytoplasm
  • Csmooth endoplasmic reticulum
  • Csynaptic vesicle

528 aa · 59 kDa · 6 isoforms

Biological roles

What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.

Synaptic signallingGO
View supporting evidence

Synaptic signalling

  • ·synaptic transmission, dopaminergic

Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.

Translational evidence

Open Targets 26

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 TH

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene THthat 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.

Dystonic Disorders
0.69Moderately supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.42

Pheochromocytoma
0.59Moderately supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.47

View evidence synthesis (2)
Dystonic DisordersModerately supported
0.69
agreement 0.570.81
Genetic100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.42 · 1 independent evidence family

PheochromocytomaModerately supported
0.59
agreement 0.430.74
Clinical93%Literature7%

Open Targets aggregate 0.47 · 2 independent evidence families

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.

Show all associations
Pheochromocytoma0.47
Dystonic Disorders0.42

Drug development

1 compounds recorded · 1 approved

Open Targets' development universe — every compound recorded against the target at any stage, not all approved medicines.

View all recorded compounds (1)
METYROSINEApproval

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 moleculesStrong

Approved Drug and Structure with Ligand support this modality.

Protein degradersEmerging

Feasibility evidence (small molecule binder) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

View underlying tractability evidence (5)
SM · Approved DrugSM · Structure with LigandSM · Med-Quality PocketSM · Druggable FamilyPR · Small Molecule Binder

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Safety-related annotations

opioid dependenceClinPGx

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.

Research activity

2 papers · to 2021

Papers linked directly to this protein. This is the protein's own literature — descriptor-derived papers are kept separate below.

Most cited

Wu DC · The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2002

Recent

Europe PMC papers linked directly to this protein.