{"entity":{"id":"tlr7","kind":"target","name":"Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7)","aka":[],"tldr":"TLR7 is an innate immune sensor for viral RNA; the cream imiquimod switches it on to make the skin's immune cells attack superficial basal cell carcinoma.","summary":"Toll-like receptor 7 sits in the endosomes of plasmacytoid dendritic cells and other immune cells and recognises single-stranded RNA. Imiquimod is a synthetic TLR7 agonist applied as a cream: it triggers interferon-alpha and other cytokines locally, recruiting an immune response that clears superficial basal cell carcinoma, actinic keratoses and genital warts. TLR7 and TLR8 agonists are also being tested as injectable immune adjuvants in solid tumours.","asOf":"2026-09-04","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TLR7","links":[{"label":"UniProt Q9NYK1: TLR7","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q9NYK1/entry"},{"label":"HGNC:15631 TLR7","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:15631"},{"label":"ChEMBL target CHEMBL5936","url":"https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chembl/explore/target/CHEMBL5936"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["basal-cell-carcinoma"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["imiquimod"],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":["nct07605962"],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"symbol":"TLR7","role":[],"sources":[],"specificity":"immune-microenvironment","distribution":"one-type","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 TLR7: RNA tissue enhanced (placenta 6 nTPM); high antibody staining in 1 normal tissue. Distribution: 1 cancer family in the corpus carries a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Skin cancer (all types)); Open Targets associates it with 2 specific cancer types at or above 0.5 (actinic keratosis, basal cell carcinoma); the corpus evidence decides and the Open Targets list is quoted for comparison. (Rule 1 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"Human Protein Atlas TLR7 tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000196664-TLR7/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"UniProt Q9NYK1","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q9NYK1/entry","note":"involvement in disease"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000196664 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000196664/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:15631","ensembl":"ENSG00000196664","uniprot":"Q9NYK1","entrez":"51284","firstDescribed":2000,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Du et al, Eur. Cytokine Netw, 2000, \"Three novel mammalian Toll-like receptors: gene structure, expression, and evolution\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11022119/","biology":"An endosomal pattern-recognition receptor signalling through MyD88 to NF-kB and IRF7, driving type I interferon production.","whereFound":["Plasmacytoid dendritic cells and B cells","Skin immune cells activated by topical imiquimod"],"targetClass":"other","prevalence":[{"cancerId":"metastatic-cancer","pct":"immune","measure":"Immune-cell target (innate immune sensor in skin and immune cells, switched on by imiquimod): 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/tlr7/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"basal-cell-carcinoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Basal cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/basal-cell-carcinoma/"}],"drug":[{"id":"imiquimod","kind":"drug","name":"Imiquimod","route":"/drugs/imiquimod/"}],"trial":[{"id":"nct07605962","kind":"trial","name":"Phase 1/2 Study of UI-102 in Selected Advanced Cancers","route":"/trials/nct07605962/"}]}}