Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

IL2

Interleukin-2

Also known as: IL-2, IL2_HUMAN, TCGF

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

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
P60568
Gene
IL2
Ensembl
ENSG00000109471
Chromosome
4
Canonical length
153 aa
Protein class
Cancer-related genes, Candidate cardiovascular disease genes, Disease related genes, Human disease related genes, Plasma proteins, Predicted secreted proteins
Secretome location
Secreted to blood

OverviewNCBI Gene

This gene is a member of the interleukin 2 (IL2) cytokine subfamily which includes IL4, IL7, IL9, IL15, IL21, erythropoietin, and thrombopoietin. The protein encoded by this gene is a secreted cytokine produced by activated CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes, that is important for the proliferation of T and B lymphocytes. The receptor of this cytokine (IL2R) is a heterotrimeric protein complex whose gamma chain is also shared by IL4 and IL7. The expression of this gene in mature thymocytes is monoallelic, which represents an unusual regulatory mode for controlling the precise expression of a single gene. The targeted disruption of a similar gene in mice leads to ulcerative colitis-like disease, which suggests an essential role of this gene in the immune response to antigenic stimuli. [provided by RefSeq, Sep 2020]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

153 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>P60568|IL2
     1  MYRMQLLSCI ALSLALVTNS APTSSSTKKT QLQLEHLLLD LQMILNGINN YKNPKLTRML
    61  TFKFYMPKKA TELKHLQCLE EELKPLEEVL NLAQSKNFHL RPRDLISNIN VIVLELKGSE
   121  TTFMCEYADE TATIVEFLNR WITFCQSIIS TLT

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against IL2 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)
0.34
Highest tissue expression
0.3 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • rectum: 0.3 nTPM
  • small intestine: 0.3 nTPM
  • tonsil: 0.3 nTPM
  • lymph node: 0.2 nTPM
  • thymus: 0.2 nTPM
  • adipose tissue: 0.1 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • t-cells: 18 nCPM
  • innate lymphoid cells: 12 nCPM
  • nk-cells: 2 nCPM
  • parietal cells: 1.8 nCPM
  • endometrial luminal cells: 1.3 nCPM
  • endometrial glandular cells: 0.5 nCPM

Immune cell

  • memory CD4 T-cell: 0.2 nTPM
  • basophil: 0 nTPM
  • classical monocyte: 0 nTPM
  • eosinophil: 0 nTPM
  • gdT-cell: 0 nTPM
  • intermediate monocyte: 0 nTPM

Brain region

  • amygdala: 0 nTPM
  • basal ganglia: 0 nTPM
  • cerebellum: 0 nTPM
  • cerebral cortex: 0 nTPM
  • choroid plexus: 0 nTPM
  • hippocampal formation: 0 nTPM

DiseaseUniProt · ClinVar · IEDB · PubMed

Four sources answering four different questions about IL2.

Disease | GeneticClinVar

2 pathogenic / likely-pathogenic of 3 ClinVar records.

Conditions with pathogenic or likely-pathogenic variants.

Disease | AutoantibodyPubMed

Conditions in which antibodies against IL2 are reported. Each links to that disease's full target list.

ReferencesPubMed · IEDB

Publications for IL2 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

27 publications

Show 20 more of 27 total

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)
0.81
gnomAD pLI
0.48
gnomAD missense Z
1.43
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

Molecular functions

Cellular components

Protein domainsUniProt · Pfam · InterPro

KeywordsUniProt

Antibody and autoantibody relevanceSeroatlas analysis

Seroatlas reads IL2 as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against IL2 could matter depends on whether native IL2 is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

IL2 is annotated as secreted, so native IL2 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 IL2 as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/IL2. 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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