Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

CHRNA7

Neuronal acetylcholine receptor subunit alpha-7

Also known as: ACHA7_HUMAN

Cross-references: UniProt · Ensembl · Human Protein Atlas · GeneCards · NCBI Gene

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
P36544
Gene
CHRNA7
Ensembl
ENSG00000175344
Chromosome
15
Canonical length
502 aa
Protein class
FDA approved drug targets, Human disease related genes, Predicted membrane proteins, Transporters
Quaternary structure
Homopentamer

OverviewNCBI Gene

The nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are members of a superfamily of ligand-gated ion channels that mediate fast signal transmission at synapses. The nAChRs are thought to be hetero-pentamers composed of homologous subunits. The proposed structure for each subunit is a conserved N-terminal extracellular domain followed by three conserved transmembrane domains, a variable cytoplasmic loop, a fourth conserved transmembrane domain, and a short C-terminal extracellular region. The protein encoded by this gene forms a homo-oligomeric channel, displays marked permeability to calcium ions and is a major component of brain nicotinic receptors that are blocked by, and highly sensitive to, alpha-bungarotoxin. Once this receptor binds acetylcholine, it undergoes an extensive change in conformation that affects all subunits and leads to opening of an ion-conducting channel across the plasma membrane. This gene is located in a region identified as a major susceptibility locus for juvenile myoclonic epilepsy and a chromosomal location involved in the genetic transmission of schizophrenia. An evolutionarily recent partial duplication event in this region results in a hybrid containing sequence from this gene and a novel FAM7A gene. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Feb 2012]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

502 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>P36544|CHRNA7
     1  MRCSPGGVWL ALAASLLHVS LQGEFQRKLY KELVKNYNPL ERPVANDSQP LTVYFSLSLL
    61  QIMDVDEKNQ VLTTNIWLQM SWTDHYLQWN VSEYPGVKTV RFPDGQIWKP DILLYNSADE
   121  RFDATFHTNV LVNSSGHCQY LPPGIFKSSC YIDVRWFPFD VQHCKLKFGS WSYGGWSLDL
   181  QMQEADISGY IPNGEWDLVG IPGKRSERFY ECCKEPYPDV TFTVTMRRRT LYYGLNLLIP
   241  CVLISALALL VFLLPADSGE KISLGITVLL SLTVFMLLVA EIMPATSDSV PLIAQYFAST
   301  MIIVGLSVVV TVIVLQYHHH DPDGGKMPKW TRVILLNWCA WFLRMKRPGE DKVRPACQHK
   361  QRRCSLASVE MSAVAPPPAS NGNLLYIGFR GLDGVHCVPT PDSGVVCGRM ACSPTHDEHL
   421  LHGGQPPEGD PDLAKILEEV RYIANRFRCQ DESEAVCSEW KFAACVVDRL CLMAFSVFTI
   481  ICTIGILMSA PNFVEAVSKD FA

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against CHRNA7 can act on the native protein depends on physical access: surface and secreted proteins are reachable by circulating antibodies, intracellular proteins usually are not.

Antibody reachability
Cell surface
Secreted
No
Transmembrane segments
4
Mean surface accessibility (rSASA)
0.38
Highest tissue expression
9.1 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • small intestine: 9.1 nTPM
  • adrenal gland: 7.3 nTPM
  • stomach: 6.2 nTPM
  • parathyroid gland: 6 nTPM
  • duodenum: 4.2 nTPM
  • choroid plexus: 3.7 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • choroid plexus epithelial cells: 67 nCPM
  • adrenal medulla cells: 53 nCPM
  • other brain neurons: 46 nCPM
  • brain inhibitory neurons: 38 nCPM
  • epididymal basal cells: 37 nCPM
  • goblet cells: 24 nCPM

Immune cell

  • basophil: 0.4 nTPM
  • NK-cell: 0.3 nTPM
  • classical monocyte: 0.1 nTPM
  • eosinophil: 0.1 nTPM
  • gdT-cell: 0.1 nTPM
  • intermediate monocyte: 0.1 nTPM

Brain region

  • pons: 18 nTPM
  • medulla oblongata: 13 nTPM
  • hypothalamus: 12 nTPM
  • midbrain: 9.4 nTPM
  • choroid plexus: 7 nTPM
  • cerebellum: 6.6 nTPM

Genetic constraint and essentialitygnomAD · DepMap

Does the body need this protein intact? Low LOEUF or a strong DepMap dependency means loss or blockade of the protein is likely to be felt.

gnomAD LOEUF (loss-of-function intolerance)
0.77
gnomAD pLI
0
gnomAD missense Z
1.25
DepMap mean gene effect
0.02
DepMap dependency class
selective

Cancer expressionTCGA

Across TCGA tumor cohorts, this protein is over-expressed in roughly 4% of surveyed tumor types (aggregate summary; per-cohort expression, alteration, and survival load in the interactive view).

OntologyGO

Biological processes

Molecular functions

Cellular components

Protein domainsUniProt · Pfam · InterPro

KeywordsUniProt

InteractionsUniProt · HPA

Protein binding partners of CHRNA7 in the human serome: UniProt-annotated complex subunits plus reported interactors. Each links to its own Seroatlas record.

Antibody and autoantibody relevanceSeroatlas analysis

Seroatlas reads CHRNA7 as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against CHRNA7 could matter depends on whether native CHRNA7 is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

CHRNA7 is annotated at the cell surface, where native CHRNA7 is exposed to circulating antibodies and is a prime autoantibody target that could block, deplete, or overstimulate it.

Annotation status

The present source text does not explicitly label CHRNA7 as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/CHRNA7. Study-independent annotations aggregated from UniProt, Human Protein Atlas, PubMed, IEDB, Pfam, InterPro, Gene Ontology, AlphaFold, gnomAD, DepMap, ClinVar, TCGA. Catalog release seroatlas-reviewed-human-uniprot-20260313.

Seroatlas is the reference for exploring autoantibody and antibody serology at the human-protein level: the autoreactome and human serome, multiplex serology (HuProt, HuScan, VirScan, PhIP-Seq).

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