{"entity":{"id":"ifnar1","kind":"target","name":"Interferon alpha receptor (IFNAR1)","aka":[],"tldr":"The receptor through which interferon alpha alerts immune cells and slows tumour growth. Interferon was one of the first immunotherapies, used in melanoma, hairy cell leukaemia and chronic myeloid leukaemia, and has largely given way to targeted drugs and checkpoint inhibitors.","summary":"IFNAR1 pairs with IFNAR2 to form the receptor for all type I interferons; binding activates JAK1 and TYK2 and the STAT1 and STAT2 transcription factors that induce antiviral, antiproliferative and immune-stimulating genes. Recombinant interferon alfa-2b was approved for hairy cell leukaemia in 1986, then for melanoma, follicular lymphoma, Kaposi sarcoma and chronic myeloid leukaemia, but flu-like symptoms, depression and modest benefit meant that cladribine, imatinib, rituximab and checkpoint inhibitors replaced it. Pegylated interferon remains useful in myeloproliferative neoplasms, and endogenous type I interferon signalling within tumours predicts response to immunotherapy.","asOf":"2026-09-04","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IFNAR1","links":[{"label":"UniProt P17181: IFNAR1","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P17181/entry"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["melanoma","hairy-cell-leukemia","cml"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["interferon-alfa"],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"symbol":"IFNAR1","role":[],"sources":[],"specificity":"immune-microenvironment","distribution":"few-types","specificityNote":"Immune or microenvironment target: its medicines act on immune, stromal or bone cells rather than on the tumour cell (drug mechanisms in the corpus). HPA IFNAR1: RNA low tissue specificity; no normal tissue stained high. Distribution: 2 cancer families in the corpus carry a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Skin cancer (all types), Leukaemia); approvals of single-target medicines aimed at it also list Myeloid neoplasms, not counted; Open Targets associates it with 7 specific cancer types at or above 0.5 (melanoma, acquired polycythemia vera, chronic myeloid leukemia, essential thrombocythemia, hairy cell leukemia, plasma cell myeloma and more). (Rule 1 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"Human Protein Atlas IFNAR1 tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000142166-IFNAR1/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"UniProt P17181","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P17181/entry","note":"involvement in disease"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000142166 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000142166/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:5432","ensembl":"ENSG00000142166","uniprot":"P17181","entrez":"3454","firstDescribed":1990,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Uze et al, Cell, 1990, \"Genetic transfer of a functional human interferon alpha receptor into mouse cells: cloning and expression of its cDNA\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2153461/","biology":"Subunit of the type I interferon receptor signalling through JAK1, TYK2 and STAT1/STAT2 to induce interferon-stimulated genes.","whereFound":["Immune and tumour cells broadly; historic indications in melanoma, hairy cell leukaemia, CML and Kaposi sarcoma"],"targetClass":"other","prevalence":[{"cancerId":"metastatic-cancer","pct":"immune","measure":"Immune-cell target (interferon alpha receptor on immune and tumour cells alike): expressed on immune cells rather than on the tumour, so patient selection rests on the cancer type and, in trials, on PD-L1 or immune biomarkers."}]},"route":"/targets/ifnar1/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"cml","kind":"cancer","name":"Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML)","route":"/cancers/cml/"},{"id":"hairy-cell-leukemia","kind":"cancer","name":"Hairy cell leukaemia","route":"/cancers/hairy-cell-leukemia/"},{"id":"melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Melanoma","route":"/cancers/melanoma/"}],"drug":[{"id":"interferon-alfa","kind":"drug","name":"Interferon alfa-2a/2b","route":"/drugs/interferon-alfa/"},{"id":"peginterferon-alfa-2b","kind":"drug","name":"Peginterferon alfa-2b","route":"/drugs/peginterferon-alfa-2b/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-darnell-jak-stat-science-1994","kind":"paper","name":"Darnell, Kerr and Stark 1994: JAK-STAT pathways and transcriptional activation by interferons","route":"/key-papers/paper-darnell-jak-stat-science-1994/"}]}}