Loading
The giant mucin that is shed into blood as the CA-125 ovarian cancer marker; its membrane stalk is being targeted by ADCs and T-cell engagers.
MUC16 is a giant transmembrane mucin overexpressed in ovarian (~80%), pancreatic, endometrial and lung cancers; its shed ectodomain is CA-125, used since 1983 for monitoring ovarian cancer. Therapeutics target the membrane-retained stalk: ubamatamab (MUC16×CD3 bispecific, Regeneron) in phase 2 in ovarian cancer, sofituzumab vedotin (ADC) discontinued, MUC16 CAR-T (with IL-12 armouring) in phase 1. Anti-CA-125 vaccines (abagovomab, oregovomab) failed in phase 3, oregovomab most recently in 2024 (FLORA-5).
In plain words · The giant mucin that is shed into blood as the CA-125 ovarian cancer marker; its membrane stalk is being targeted by ADCs and T-cell engagers.
The giant mucin that is shed into blood as the CA-125 ovarian cancer marker; its membrane stalk is being targeted by ADCs and T-cell engagers.
22,000-amino-acid mucin with tandem repeats, SEA domains cleaved to release CA-125, and a short cytoplasmic tail; mediates immune evasion (binds Siglec-9, mesothelin), adhesion to mesothelium and metastasis.
1 product aims at MUC16 (CA-125): bispecific antibodies. Because it sits on the outside of the cell, it can be reached from the bloodstream: antibodies flag the cell, ADCs deliver a toxin, radioligands deliver radiation, and CAR-T or bispecifics bring a T cell.
Tumour-associated overexpression: 1 cell-killing or cell-finding medicine (Ubamatamab) aim at the antigen, which HPA finds stained high in 4 normal tissues; the medicine relies on the tumour carrying more of it than the normal tissue it shares it with. HPA MUC16: RNA group enriched (adipose tissue 7 nTPM, cervix 15 nTPM, fallopian tube 6 nTPM); high antibody staining in 4 normal tissues; highest cancer staining ovarian cancer (11 of 11 high). Distribution: 3 cancer families in the corpus carry a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Ovarian cancer, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Endometrial cancer); Open Targets associates it with 1 specific cancer type at or above 0.5 (ovarian cancer). (Rule 5 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)
Sources: Human Protein Atlas MUC16 tissue; Human Protein Atlas MUC16 pathology; Open Targets ENSG00000181143 associations
First described 2001. Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: O'Brien T.J. et al, Tumor Biol, 2001, "The CA 125 gene: an extracellular superstructure dominated by repeat sequences". Source.
22,000-amino-acid mucin with tandem repeats, SEA domains cleaved to release CA-125, and a short cytoplasmic tail; mediates immune evasion (binds Siglec-9, mesothelin), adhesion to mesothelium and metastasis.
RNA: group enriched (adipose tissue 7 nTPM, cervix 15 nTPM, fallopian tube 6 nTPM, salivary gland 6 nTPM), detected in some normal tissues.
Medium: Salivary gland.
RNA group enriched: Cervical Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Endocervical Adenocarcinoma 35 pTPM, Ovary Serous Cystadenocarcinoma 98 pTPM, Uterine Corpus Endometrial Carcinoma 36 pTPM.
Medium only: head and neck cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, urothelial cancer.
Human Protein Atlas version 25.1, antibody staining at reliability approved, enhanced or supported; used under CC BY-SA 3.0. Staining counts are patients per level in the atlas cohort, not population prevalence.
| Cancer | Prevalence | Measure | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ovarian cancer | 80% | MUC16 expression | doi.org |
Approximate, population-level figures; the measure column says what was counted. Ranges show the midpoint as a bar.
Ubamatamab (REGN4018) is Regeneron's investigational MUC16×CD3 bispecific antibody, in phase 1/2 and phase 2 trials for ovarian and endometrial cancer.
Query for this target: (TITLE:"MUC16" OR ABSTRACT:"MUC16" OR TITLE:"CA-125" OR ABSTRACT:"CA-125") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about MUC16 (CA-125), not a curated reading list.
Shares Ubamatamab, Regeneron, Endometrial cancer, Ovarian cancer.
Shares Ubamatamab, Regeneron, Endometrial cancer, Ovarian cancer.
Shares Ubamatamab, Regeneron, T-cell engagers (bispecific).
Shares Ubamatamab, Regeneron, Ovarian cancer.
Shares Folate receptor alpha, Endometrial cancer, Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), Ovarian cancer.
Shares CA-125, Serum tumour markers: proper use and misuse, Ovarian cancer.
Shares Folate receptor alpha, Endometrial cancer, Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), Ovarian cancer.
Shares Folate receptor alpha, Endometrial cancer, Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), Ovarian cancer.