{"entity":{"id":"aldh1a2","kind":"target","name":"ALDH1A2","aka":["aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family member A2","Retinal dehydrogenase 2","RALDH2"],"tldr":"ALDH1A2 (Retinal dehydrogenase 2) is an enzyme. The public catalogues list it as a drug target and a biomarker, and clinical evidence ties its variants to diagnosis, prognosis or drug response. Tied to Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.","summary":"Catalyses the NAD-dependent oxidation of aldehyde substrates, such as all-trans-retinal and all-trans-13,14-dihydroretinal, to their corresponding carboxylic acids, all-trans-retinoate and all-trans-13,14-dihydroretinoate, respectively. Retinoate signalling is critical for the transcriptional control of many genes, for instance it is crucial for initiation of meiosis in both male and female. Recognises retinal as substrate, both in its free form and when bound to cellular retinol-binding protein.\n\nCIViC holds 3 clinical evidence items and 0 assertions across 2 variants, naming Tretinoin.","asOf":"2026-09-23","links":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:15472","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:15472"},{"label":"UniProt O94788","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/O94788/entry"},{"label":"NCBI Gene 8854","url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/8854"},{"label":"Ensembl ENSG00000128918","url":"https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000128918"}],"tags":["cancer-genes-wave"],"related":["civic"],"cancers":["head-and-neck"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":["Written by scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts from CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC and UniProt; the function text is UniProt's, condensed and in UK spelling. Roles: CIViC lists 1 therapies; CIViC holds 3 clinical evidence items on its variants. Evidence tier \"clinical-evidence\" is the strongest of those signals.","Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate."],"provenance":{"editedBy":"scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts (CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC, UniProt)","editedOn":"2026-09-23"},"symbol":"ALDH1A2","role":["drug-target","biomarker"],"evidenceTier":"clinical-evidence","sources":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:15472","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:15472","note":"approved symbol, name, aliases, locus and cross-references (hgnc_complete_set.txt)"},{"label":"UniProt O94788","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/O94788/entry","note":"protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)"},{"label":"CIViC gene ALDH1A2","url":"https://civicdb.org/features/7024","note":"3 evidence items, 0 assertions, 2 variants; diseases: Head And Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (GraphQL API, CC0)"}],"distribution":"one-type","specificityNote":"Specificity not established: no corpus medicine is aimed at it and the catalogues give it only the roles drug-target, biomarker; HPA finds the RNA tissue enhanced, which says where the protein sits but not whether the tumour differs from normal tissue. HPA ALDH1A2: RNA tissue enhanced (endometrium 1 77 nTPM, fallopian tube 70 nTPM); blood lineage lineage enriched (granulocytes 33 nTPM); high antibody staining in 5 normal tissues; highest cancer staining colorectal cancer (6 of 12 high). Distribution: 1 cancer family in the corpus carries a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma); Open Targets associates it with 0 specific cancer types at or above 0.5. (No rule of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts fired.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"Human Protein Atlas ALDH1A2 tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000128918-ALDH1A2/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000128918 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000128918/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:15472","ensembl":"ENSG00000128918","uniprot":"O94788","entrez":"8854","firstDescribed":1998,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Ono et al, Mol. Cell. Biol, 1998, \"TAL1 and LIM-only proteins synergistically induce retinaldehyde dehydrogenase 2 expression in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia by acting as cofactors for GATA3\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9819382/","biology":"Catalyses the NAD-dependent oxidation of aldehyde substrates, such as all-trans-retinal and all-trans-13,14-dihydroretinal, to their corresponding carboxylic acids, all-trans-retinoate and all-trans-13,14-dihydroretinoate, respectively. Retinoate signalling is critical for the transcriptional control of many genes, for instance it is crucial for initiation of meiosis in both male and female. Recognises retinal as substrate, both in its free form and when bound to cellular retinol-binding protein. Can metabolise octanal and decanal, but has only very low activity with benzaldehyde, acetaldehyde and propanal. Displays complete lack of activity with citral. Location: Cytoplasm (UniProt). Locus 15q21.3 (HGNC).","whereFound":["Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: CIViC evidence names this disease"],"targetClass":"enzyme","prevalence":[]},"route":"/targets/aldh1a2/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"civic","kind":"collection","name":"CIViC","route":"/collections/civic/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"head-and-neck","kind":"cancer","name":"Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/head-and-neck/"}]}}