This gene encodes alpha-fetoprotein, a major plasma protein produced by the yolk sac and the liver during fetal life. Alpha-fetoprotein expression in adults is often associated with hepatocarcinoma and with teratoma, and has prognostic value for managing advanced gastric cancer. However, hereditary persistance of alpha-fetoprotein may also be found in individuals with no obvious pathology. The protein is thought to be the fetal counterpart of serum albumin, and the alpha-fetoprotein and albumin genes are present in tandem in the same transcriptional orientation on chromosome 4. Alpha-fetoprotein is found in monomeric as well as dimeric and trimeric forms, and binds copper, nickel, fatty acids and bilirubin. The level of alpha-fetoprotein in amniotic fluid is used to measure renal loss of protein to screen for spina bifida and anencephaly. [provided by RefSeq, Oct 2019]
Overall distribution
Tissue specific distribution
Expression restricted in 1 cancer type(s)
Overall distribution
Tissue specific distribution
Gscore (Amp):
0.00
Gscore (Del):
0.00
Overall distribution
Tissue specific distribution
Mscore:
0.00
Overall
Tissue specific
Total fusion occurrence:
NA
Overall
Tissue specific
Functional class:
Not specified
JensenLab PubMed score:
11800.46 (Percentile rank: 99.77%)
PubTator score:
10421.14 (Percentile rank: 99.80%)
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):
N/A
Tractability (antibody):
Predicted Tractable - Medium to low confidenceTargets with GO cell component terms plasma membrane or secreted with low or unknown confidence; Targets with predicted signal peptide and transmembrane domains; GO cell component - medium confidence; Human Protein Atlas - high confidence
