{"entity":{"id":"tuba4a","kind":"target","name":"TUBA4A","aka":["tubulin alpha 4a","Tubulin alpha-4A chain","FLJ30169","H2-ALPHA","TUBA1"],"tldr":"TUBA4A (Tubulin alpha-4A chain) is an enzyme. The public catalogues list it as a drug target, and an approved or late-stage drug is recorded against it. Tied to Breast cancer, Lung cancer, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and 5 more.","summary":"Tubulin is the major constituent of microtubules, a cylinder consisting of laterally associated linear protofilaments composed of alpha- and beta-tubulin heterodimers. Microtubules grow by the addition of GTP-tubulin dimers to the microtubule end, where a stabilising cap forms. Below the cap, tubulin dimers are in GDP-bound state, owing to GTPase activity of alpha-tubulin.\n\nOpen Targets scores its association with cancer at 0.63 (direct and indirect evidence; datatypes literature 0.40, animal model 0.58, genetic association 0.00, clinical 1.00).","asOf":"2026-09-23","links":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:12407","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:12407"},{"label":"UniProt P68366","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P68366/entry"},{"label":"NCBI Gene 7277","url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/7277"},{"label":"Ensembl ENSG00000127824","url":"https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000127824"}],"tags":["cancer-genes-wave"],"related":["open-targets"],"cancers":["breast-cancer","lung-cancer","non-hodgkin-lymphoma","prostate","sarcoma","hodgkin-lymphoma","cervical","multiple-myeloma"],"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: Open Targets known-drug datatype score 1.00. Evidence tier \"approved-drug\" 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":"TUBA4A","role":["drug-target"],"evidenceTier":"approved-drug","sources":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:12407","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:12407","note":"approved symbol, name, aliases, locus and cross-references (hgnc_complete_set.txt)"},{"label":"UniProt P68366","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P68366/entry","note":"protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000127824","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000127824/associations","note":"association with cancer (MONDO_0004992) 0.63; per-cancer scores at or above 0.5: non-small cell lung carcinoma 0.61, gastric cancer 0.53, prostate cancer 0.59, ovarian cancer 0.56, cervical cancer 0.59, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma 0.53 (GraphQL API, CC0)"}],"distribution":"many-types","specificityNote":"Specificity not established: no corpus medicine is aimed at it and the catalogues give it only the role drug-target; HPA finds the RNA tissue enhanced, which says where the protein sits but not whether the tumour differs from normal tissue. HPA TUBA4A: RNA tissue enhanced (skeletal muscle 346 nTPM, tongue 249 nTPM); high antibody staining in 35 normal tissues; highest cancer staining carcinoid (2 of 4 high). Distribution: 7 cancer families in the corpus carry a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Breast cancer (all types), Lung cancer (all types), Lymphoma, Prostate cancer, Sarcomas (soft tissue, bone, GIST), Cervical cancer, Multiple myeloma); Open Targets associates it with 19 specific cancer types at or above 0.5 (breast cancer, non-small cell lung carcinoma, breast carcinoma, Hodgkins lymphoma, cervical cancer, plasma cell myeloma and more). (No rule of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts fired.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"Human Protein Atlas TUBA4A tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000127824-TUBA4A/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000127824 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000127824/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:12407","ensembl":"ENSG00000127824","uniprot":"P68366","entrez":"7277","firstDescribed":1987,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Dobner P.R. et al, Nucleic Acids Res, 1987, \"Alternative 5' exons either provide or deny an initiator methionine codon to the same alpha-tubulin coding region\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3029670/","biology":"Tubulin is the major constituent of microtubules, a cylinder consisting of laterally associated linear protofilaments composed of alpha- and beta-tubulin heterodimers. Microtubules grow by the addition of GTP-tubulin dimers to the microtubule end, where a stabilising cap forms. Below the cap, tubulin dimers are in GDP-bound state, owing to GTPase activity of alpha-tubulin. Location: Cytoplasm, cytoskeleton (UniProt). Locus 2q35 (HGNC).","whereFound":["Breast cancer: Open Targets association 0.62 with breast cancer (MONDO_0007254)","Lung cancer: Open Targets association 0.61 with lung cancer (MONDO_0008903)","Non-Hodgkin lymphoma: Open Targets association 0.59 with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (MONDO_0018908)","Prostate cancer: Open Targets association 0.59 with prostate cancer (MONDO_0008315)","Sarcomas: Open Targets association 0.59 with sarcoma (MONDO_0005089)","Hodgkin lymphoma: Open Targets association 0.59 with Hodgkins lymphoma (MONDO_0004952)"],"targetClass":"enzyme","prevalence":[]},"route":"/targets/tuba4a/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"open-targets","kind":"collection","name":"Open Targets Platform","route":"/collections/open-targets/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"breast-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Breast cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/breast-cancer/"},{"id":"cervical","kind":"cancer","name":"Cervical cancer","route":"/cancers/cervical/"},{"id":"hodgkin-lymphoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Hodgkin lymphoma","route":"/cancers/hodgkin-lymphoma/"},{"id":"lung-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Lung cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/lung-cancer/"},{"id":"multiple-myeloma","kind":"cancer","name":"Multiple myeloma","route":"/cancers/multiple-myeloma/"},{"id":"non-hodgkin-lymphoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (all types)","route":"/cancers/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/"},{"id":"prostate","kind":"cancer","name":"Prostate cancer","route":"/cancers/prostate/"},{"id":"sarcoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Sarcomas (soft tissue, bone, GIST)","route":"/cancers/sarcoma/"}]}}