The protein encoded by this gene is a protease inhibitor and cytokine transporter. It uses a bait-and-trap mechanism to inhibit a broad spectrum of proteases, including trypsin, thrombin and collagenase. It can also inhibit inflammatory cytokines, and it thus disrupts inflammatory cascades. Mutations in this gene are a cause of alpha-2-macroglobulin deficiency. This gene is implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD) due to its ability to mediate the clearance and degradation of A-beta, the major component of beta-amyloid deposits. A related pseudogene, which is also located on the p arm of chromosome 12, has been identified. [provided by RefSeq, Nov 2016]
Overall distribution
Tissue specific distribution
Overall distribution
Tissue specific distribution
Gscore (Amp):
0.00
Gscore (Del):
0.00
Overall distribution
Tissue specific distribution
Mscore:
0.10
Recurrently mutated in 1 cancer type(s)
Overall
Tissue specific
Total fusion occurrence:
3
Fusions detected in 3 cancer type(s)
Overall
Tissue specific
Functional class:
Not specified
JensenLab PubMed score:
801.95 (Percentile rank: 94.18%)
PubTator score:
2462.93 (Percentile rank: 98.67%)
Target development/druggability level:
TbioThese targets do not have known drug or small molecule activities that satisfy the activity thresholds detailed below AND satisfy one or more of the following criteria: 1) target is above the cutoff criteria for Tdark; 2) target is annotated with a Gene Ontology Molecular Function or Biological Process leaf term(s) with an Experimental Evidence code.
Tractability (small molecule):
Predicted TractableTargets with a predicted Ro5 druggable domain (druggable genome); Targets with a drugEBIlity score equal or greater than 0
Tractability (antibody):
Predicted Tractable - High confidenceTargets located in the plasma membrane; Targets with GO cell component terms plasma membrane or secreted