ICOS
Inducible T-cell costimulator
Also known as: AILIM, CD278, ICOS_HUMAN
Cross-references: UniProt · Ensembl · Human Protein Atlas · GeneCards · NCBI Gene
Protein identityUniProt · HPA
- UniProt accession
- Q9Y6W8
- Gene
- ICOS
- Ensembl
- ENSG00000163600
- Chromosome
- 2
- Canonical length
- 199 aa
- Protein class
- CD markers, Disease related genes, Human disease related genes, Predicted membrane proteins
- Subcellular location
- Plasma membrane,Actin filaments
- Secretome location
- Intracellular and membrane
- Quaternary structure
- Homodimer
OverviewNCBI Gene
The protein encoded by this gene belongs to the CD28 and CTLA-4 cell-surface receptor family. It forms homodimers and plays an important role in cell-cell signaling, immune responses, and regulation of cell proliferation. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]
Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt
199 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.
>Q9Y6W8|ICOS
1 MKSGLWYFFL FCLRIKVLTG EINGSANYEM FIFHNGGVQI LCKYPDIVQQ FKMQLLKGGQ
61 ILCDLTKTKG SGNTVSIKSL KFCHSQLSNN SVSFFLYNLD HSHANYYFCN LSIFDPPPFK
121 VTLTGGYLHI YESQLCCQLK FWLPIGCAAF VVVCILGCIL ICWLTKKKYS SSVHDPNGEY
181 MFMRAVNTAK KSRLTDVTLLocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA
Whether an antibody against ICOS 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
- 1
- Mean surface accessibility (rSASA)
- 0.46
- Highest tissue expression
- 19 nTPM
Expression across tissuesHPA
Tissue
- thymus: 19 nTPM
- bone marrow: 16 nTPM
- tonsil: 15 nTPM
- lymph node: 13 nTPM
- appendix: 7.2 nTPM
- spleen: 3.1 nTPM
Single-cell type
- t-cells: 300 nCPM
- innate lymphoid cells: 148 nCPM
- thymocytes: 31 nCPM
- nk-cells: 23 nCPM
- gastric chief cells: 13 nCPM
- lacrimal acinar cells: 8.2 nCPM
Immune cell
- T-reg: 29 nTPM
- naive CD4 T-cell: 16 nTPM
- memory CD4 T-cell: 15 nTPM
- naive CD8 T-cell: 7.2 nTPM
- memory CD8 T-cell: 6.8 nTPM
- total PBMC: 4.3 nTPM
Brain region
- medulla oblongata: 0.3 nTPM
- hypothalamus: 0.1 nTPM
- pons: 0.1 nTPM
- spinal cord: 0.1 nTPM
- white matter: 0.1 nTPM
- amygdala: 0 nTPM
DiseaseUniProt · ClinVar · IEDB · PubMed
Four sources answering four different questions about ICOS.
Disease | AllUniProt
Conditions ICOS is implicated in, by any mechanism.
- Immunodeficiency, common variable, 1 (CVID1) MIM:607594
Disease | GeneticClinVar
12 pathogenic / likely-pathogenic of 197 ClinVar records.
Conditions with pathogenic or likely-pathogenic variants.
ReferencesPubMed · IEDB
Publications for ICOS from three distinct lines of evidence, kept separate because they answer different questions: whether antibodies are directed at the protein, whether a B-cell epitope has been mapped on it, and whether a T-cell epitope has. Each is labelled with its source.
Reference: AutoantibodyPubMed
5 publications
- T follicular helper cells contribute to pathophysiology in a model of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders.
2023 · JCI Insight · RCR 1.9 · 19 citations - Opposing effects of anti-activation-inducible lymphocyte-immunomodulatory molecule/inducible costimulator antibody on the development of acute versus chronic graft-versus-host disease.
2001 · J Immunol · RCR 0.9 · 52 citations - Expression and function of inducible co-stimulator in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: possible involvement in excessive interferon-gamma and anti-double-stranded DNA antibody production.
2006 · Arthritis Res Ther · RCR 0.7 · 43 citations - ICOS-B7 homologous protein interactions are necessary for mercury-induced autoimmunity.
2005 · J Immunol · RCR 0.3 · 13 citations - The Role and Mechanism of Anti-ICOS mAb in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis.
2025 · Immunology
Sources: PubMed — antigen-level antibody evidence from a custom retrieval. Records matching a controlled set of autoantibody terms (the MeSH descriptors Autoantibodies and Autoantigens, with title and abstract term variants) were obtained through NCBI E-utilities, and their titles and abstracts parsed for constructions that direct an antibody at a named protein rather than for co-occurrence. Captured names were resolved against UniProt nomenclature and each antigen adjudicated individually against the source text. Bibliographic records from PubMed and MeSH, U.S. National Library of Medicine; citation metrics from NIH iCite (Hutchins et al., PLoS Biology 2016). Titles link to PubMed; abstracts are not reproduced here. The NLM does not endorse this analysis.
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)
- 0.91
- gnomAD pLI
- 0.03
- gnomAD missense Z
- 1.21
- DepMap mean gene effect
- 0.1
- DepMap dependency class
- none
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
- cell-cell adhesion
- immune response
- T cell costimulation
- T follicular helper cell differentiation
- T cell tolerance induction
Molecular functions
Cellular components
Protein domainsUniProt · Pfam · InterPro
- Immunoglobulin V-set domain
- Immunoglobulin-like fold
- ICOS V-set domain
- Inducible T-cell costimulator
KeywordsUniProt
InteractionsUniProt · HPA
Protein binding partners of ICOS 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 ICOS as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against ICOS could matter depends on whether native ICOS is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.
ICOS is annotated at the cell surface, where native ICOS 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 ICOS as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.
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