Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

IL22

Interleukin-22

Also known as: IL-21, IL-22, IL-D110, IL-TIF, IL22_HUMAN, ILTIF, MGC79382, MGC79384, TIFa, TIFIL-23, zcyto18

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

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
Q9GZX6
Gene
IL22
Ensembl
ENSG00000127318
Chromosome
12
Canonical length
179 aa
Protein class
Predicted secreted proteins
Secretome location
Secreted to blood

OverviewNCBI Gene

This gene is a member of the IL10 family of cytokines that mediate cellular inflammatory responses. The encoded protein functions in antimicrobial defense at mucosal surfaces and in tissue repair. This protein also has pro-inflammatory properties and plays a role in in the pathogenesis of several intestinal diseases. The encoded protein is a crucial cytokine that regulates host immunity in infectious diseases, including COVID-19 (disease caused by SARS-CoV-2). [provided by RefSeq, Dec 2021]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

179 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>Q9GZX6|IL22
     1  MAALQKSVSS FLMGTLATSC LLLLALLVQG GAAAPISSHC RLDKSNFQQP YITNRTFMLA
    61  KEASLADNNT DVRLIGEKLF HGVSMSERCY LMKQVLNFTL EEVLFPQSDR FQPYMQEVVP
   121  FLARLSNRLS TCHIEGDDLH IQRNVQKLKD TVKKLGESGE IKAIGELDLL FMSLRNACI

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against IL22 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
1.4 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • urinary bladder: 1.4 nTPM
  • appendix: 0.5 nTPM
  • esophagus: 0.3 nTPM
  • small intestine: 0.3 nTPM
  • tonsil: 0.2 nTPM
  • cerebellum: 0.1 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • t-cells: 50 nCPM
  • innate lymphoid cells: 7.3 nCPM
  • retinal horizontal cells: 2 nCPM
  • cdc: 1.4 nCPM
  • early spermatids: 1.4 nCPM
  • cardiomyocytes: 0.8 nCPM

Immune cell

  • basophil: 0 nTPM
  • classical monocyte: 0 nTPM
  • eosinophil: 0 nTPM
  • gdT-cell: 0 nTPM
  • intermediate monocyte: 0 nTPM
  • MAIT T-cell: 0 nTPM

Brain region

  • white matter: 0.4 nTPM
  • basal ganglia: 0.3 nTPM
  • cerebral cortex: 0.3 nTPM
  • hippocampal formation: 0.2 nTPM
  • hypothalamus: 0.2 nTPM
  • midbrain: 0.2 nTPM

DiseaseUniProt · ClinVar · IEDB · PubMed

Four sources answering four different questions about IL22.

Disease | AutoantibodyPubMed

Conditions in which antibodies against IL22 are reported. Each links to that disease's full target list.

Showing 1 of 2 — disease pages carrying at least 10 antigens.

ReferencesPubMed · IEDB

Publications for IL22 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

9 publications

Show 4 more

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)
1.63
gnomAD pLI
0
gnomAD missense Z
0.18
DepMap mean gene effect
0.03
DepMap dependency class
none

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 IL22 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 IL22 as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against IL22 could matter depends on whether native IL22 is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

IL22 is annotated as secreted, so native IL22 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 IL22 as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/IL22. 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...