Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

IL12A

Interleukin-12 subunit alpha

Also known as: CLMF, IL-12A, IL12A_HUMAN, NFSK, NKSF1, p35

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

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
P29459
Gene
IL12A
Ensembl
ENSG00000168811
Chromosome
3
Canonical length
219 aa
Protein class
Cancer-related genes, Plasma proteins, Predicted intracellular proteins, Predicted secreted proteins
Secretome location
Secreted to blood

OverviewNCBI Gene

This gene encodes a subunit of a cytokine that acts on T and natural killer cells, and has a broad array of biological activities. The cytokine is a disulfide-linked heterodimer composed of the 35-kD subunit encoded by this gene, and a 40-kD subunit that is a member of the cytokine receptor family. This cytokine is required for the T-cell-independent induction of interferon (IFN)-gamma, and is important for the differentiation of both Th1 and Th2 cells. The responses of lymphocytes to this cytokine are mediated by the activator of transcription protein STAT4. Nitric oxide synthase 2A (NOS2A/NOS2) is found to be required for the signaling process of this cytokine in innate immunity. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

219 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>P29459|IL12A
     1  MCPARSLLLV ATLVLLDHLS LARNLPVATP DPGMFPCLHH SQNLLRAVSN MLQKARQTLE
    61  FYPCTSEEID HEDITKDKTS TVEACLPLEL TKNESCLNSR ETSFITNGSC LASRKTSFMM
   121  ALCLSSIYED LKMYQVEFKT MNAKLLMDPK RQIFLDQNML AVIDELMQAL NFNSETVPQK
   181  SSLEEPDFYK TKIKLCILLH AFRIRAVTID RVMSYLNAS

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against IL12A 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
Secreted
Secreted
Yes
Transmembrane segments
0
Mean surface accessibility (rSASA)
0.35
Highest tissue expression
4.1 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • esophagus: 4.1 nTPM
  • fallopian tube: 2 nTPM
  • lung: 2 nTPM
  • midbrain: 1.7 nTPM
  • amygdala: 1.5 nTPM
  • basal ganglia: 1.5 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • esophageal apical cells: 65 nCPM
  • fallopian tube ciliated cells: 12 nCPM
  • tuft cells: 12 nCPM
  • endometrial ciliated cells: 5 nCPM
  • hematopoietic stem cells: 4.4 nCPM
  • respiratory ciliated cells: 4.2 nCPM

Immune cell

  • naive B-cell: 2.2 nTPM
  • memory CD8 T-cell: 0.6 nTPM
  • T-reg: 0.6 nTPM
  • eosinophil: 0.5 nTPM
  • MAIT T-cell: 0.5 nTPM
  • memory B-cell: 0.5 nTPM

Brain region

  • cerebral cortex: 1.9 nTPM
  • midbrain: 1.6 nTPM
  • white matter: 1.6 nTPM
  • pons: 1.4 nTPM
  • amygdala: 1.3 nTPM
  • thalamus: 1.3 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)
0.82
gnomAD pLI
0.05
gnomAD missense Z
0.83
DepMap mean gene effect
-0.02
DepMap dependency class
selective

Cancer expressionTCGA

Across TCGA tumor cohorts, this protein is over-expressed in roughly 5% 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 IL12A 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 IL12A as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against IL12A could matter depends on whether native IL12A is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

IL12A is annotated as secreted, so native IL12A circulates and is directly accessible to antibodies. Secreted and cell-surface proteins are the autoantibody targets most likely to act like drugs, blocking or depleting the native protein.

Annotation status

The present source text does not explicitly label IL12A as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/IL12A. 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).

© 2026 · Seroatlas, Discover Oregon LLC · Terms of use

Loading the interactive Seroatlas protein explorer...