{"entity":{"id":"eif4a1","kind":"target","name":"EIF4A1","aka":["eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A1","Eukaryotic initiation factor 4A-I","DDX2A","EIF-4A","EIF4A"],"tldr":"EIF4A1 (Eukaryotic initiation factor 4A-I) is an enzyme. The public catalogues list it as a biomarker, and clinical evidence ties its variants to diagnosis, prognosis or drug response. Tied to Burkitt lymphoma.","summary":"ATP-dependent RNA helicase which is a subunit of the eIF4F complex involved in cap recognition and is required for mRNA binding to ribosome. In the current model of translation initiation, eIF4A unwinds RNA secondary structures in the 5'-UTR of mRNAs which is necessary to allow efficient binding of the small ribosomal subunit, and subsequent scanning for the initiator codon. As a result, promotes cell proliferation and growth.\n\nCIViC holds 1 clinical evidence item and 0 assertions across 1 variant.","asOf":"2026-09-23","links":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:3282","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:3282"},{"label":"UniProt P60842","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P60842/entry"},{"label":"NCBI Gene 1973","url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/1973"},{"label":"Ensembl ENSG00000161960","url":"https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000161960"}],"tags":["cancer-genes-wave"],"related":["civic"],"cancers":["burkitt-lymphoma"],"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 holds 1 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":"EIF4A1","role":["biomarker"],"evidenceTier":"clinical-evidence","sources":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:3282","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:3282","note":"approved symbol, name, aliases, locus and cross-references (hgnc_complete_set.txt)"},{"label":"UniProt P60842","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P60842/entry","note":"protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)"},{"label":"CIViC gene EIF4A1","url":"https://civicdb.org/features/1651","note":"1 evidence items, 0 assertions, 1 variants; diseases: Burkitt Lymphoma (GraphQL API, CC0)"}],"specificity":"broadly-expressed","distribution":"one-type","specificityNote":"Broadly expressed or essential: HPA lists EIF4A1 among essential proteins and finds the RNA at low tissue specificity; a medicine acting on the wild-type protein would expose normal tissue too. HPA EIF4A1: RNA low tissue specificity; no normal tissue stained high; highest cancer staining testis cancer (3 of 11 high). Distribution: 1 cancer family in the corpus carries a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Lymphoma); Open Targets associates it with 0 specific cancer types at or above 0.5. (Rule 7 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"Human Protein Atlas EIF4A1 tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000161960-EIF4A1/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000161960 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000161960/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:3282","ensembl":"ENSG00000161960","uniprot":"P60842","entrez":"1973","firstDescribed":1993,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Kim N.-S. et al, Nucleic Acids Res, 1993, \"Nucleotide sequence of human cDNA encoding eukaryotic initiation factor 4AI\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8493113/","biology":"ATP-dependent RNA helicase which is a subunit of the eIF4F complex involved in cap recognition and is required for mRNA binding to ribosome. In the current model of translation initiation, eIF4A unwinds RNA secondary structures in the 5'-UTR of mRNAs which is necessary to allow efficient binding of the small ribosomal subunit, and subsequent scanning for the initiator codon. As a result, promotes cell proliferation and growth. Location: Cytoplasm, perinuclear region; Cell membrane; Cytoplasm, Stress granule (UniProt). Locus 17p13.1 (HGNC).","whereFound":["Burkitt lymphoma: CIViC evidence names this disease"],"targetClass":"enzyme","prevalence":[]},"route":"/targets/eif4a1/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"civic","kind":"collection","name":"CIViC","route":"/collections/civic/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"burkitt-lymphoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Burkitt lymphoma","route":"/cancers/burkitt-lymphoma/"}]}}