{"entity":{"id":"tubulin","kind":"target","name":"Tubulin (microtubules)","aka":[],"tldr":"The protein that builds the microtubule scaffolding a cell needs to pull its chromosomes apart. Taxanes freeze the scaffold and vinca alkaloids and eribulin stop it forming; either way the dividing cell stalls and dies.","summary":"Alpha and beta tubulin dimers assemble into microtubules, the dynamic fibres that form the mitotic spindle, move cargo and shape the cell. Taxanes such as paclitaxel and docetaxel bind beta tubulin and lock microtubules in place; vinca alkaloids such as vincristine and the halichondrin analogue eribulin bind the growing ends and stop assembly. Both leave the spindle unable to segregate chromosomes, triggering mitotic arrest. The same mechanism carries the MMAE payload of brentuximab vedotin and enfortumab vedotin and the maytansinoid payload of trastuzumab emtansine. Peripheral neuropathy, from microtubule damage in long axons, is the shared dose-limiting toxicity.","asOf":"2026-09-04","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubulin","links":[{"label":"UniProt P07437: TUBB","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P07437/entry"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["breast-hr-positive","nsclc","ovarian","all-leukemia"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["paclitaxel","docetaxel","vincristine","eribulin"],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"symbol":"TUBB","role":[],"sources":[],"specificity":"broadly-expressed","distribution":"few-types","specificityNote":"Broadly expressed or essential: HPA lists TUBB among essential proteins and finds the RNA at low tissue specificity; the 8 medicines aimed at it (Paclitaxel / nab-paclitaxel, Docetaxel, Vincristine and more) act on the wild-type protein, so normal tissue is exposed and the therapeutic window comes from the tumour's faster division or its dependence on the protein. HPA TUBB: RNA low tissue specificity; high antibody staining in 9 normal tissues; highest cancer staining testis cancer (3 of 11 high). Distribution: 4 cancer families in the corpus carry a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Breast cancer (all types), Lung cancer (all types), Ovarian cancer, Leukaemia); approvals of single-target medicines aimed at it also list Prostate cancer, not counted; 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, plasma cell myeloma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and more). (Rule 7 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"Human Protein Atlas TUBB tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000196230-TUBB/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000196230 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000196230/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:20778","ensembl":"ENSG00000196230","uniprot":"P07437","entrez":"203068","firstDescribed":1983,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Lee M.G.-S. et al, Cell, 1983, \"Evolutionary history of a multigene family: an expressed human beta-tubulin gene and three processed pseudogenes\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6688039/","biology":"Heterodimeric building block of microtubules; drug binding at the taxane, vinca or maytansine site disrupts spindle dynamics.","whereFound":["Every dividing cell; the basis of taxane, vinca alkaloid, eribulin and tubulin-payload antibody-drug conjugate therapy"],"targetClass":"other","prevalence":[{"cancerId":"metastatic-cancer","pct":"all","measure":"Housekeeping enzyme present in every dividing cell (microtubule scaffold for cell division); not a selection marker, which is why these drugs are given by cancer type rather than by test."}]},"route":"/targets/tubulin/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"all-leukemia","kind":"cancer","name":"Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia","route":"/cancers/all-leukemia/"},{"id":"breast-hr-positive","kind":"cancer","name":"HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer","route":"/cancers/breast-hr-positive/"},{"id":"nsclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Non-small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/nsclc/"},{"id":"ovarian","kind":"cancer","name":"Ovarian cancer","route":"/cancers/ovarian/"}],"drug":[{"id":"depatuxizumab-mafodotin","kind":"drug","name":"Depatuxizumab mafodotin","route":"/drugs/depatuxizumab-mafodotin/"},{"id":"docetaxel","kind":"drug","name":"Docetaxel","route":"/drugs/docetaxel/"},{"id":"eribulin","kind":"drug","name":"Eribulin","route":"/drugs/eribulin/"},{"id":"estramustine","kind":"drug","name":"Estramustine","route":"/drugs/estramustine/"},{"id":"paclitaxel","kind":"drug","name":"Paclitaxel / nab-paclitaxel","route":"/drugs/paclitaxel/"},{"id":"utidelone","kind":"drug","name":"Utidelone","route":"/drugs/utidelone/"},{"id":"vincristine","kind":"drug","name":"Vincristine","route":"/drugs/vincristine/"},{"id":"vindesine","kind":"drug","name":"Vindesine","route":"/drugs/vindesine/"}]}}