# ALDH1A2

Source: https://onco.cc/targets/aldh1a2/  
OnCo record `aldh1a2` (Target). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

ALDH1A2 (Retinal dehydrogenase 2) is an enzyme. The public catalogues list it as a drug target and a biomarker, and clinical evidence ties its variants to diagnosis, prognosis or drug response. Tied to Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

## Summary

Catalyses the NAD-dependent oxidation of aldehyde substrates, such as all-trans-retinal and all-trans-13,14-dihydroretinal, to their corresponding carboxylic acids, all-trans-retinoate and all-trans-13,14-dihydroretinoate, respectively. Retinoate signalling is critical for the transcriptional control of many genes, for instance it is crucial for initiation of meiosis in both male and female. Recognises retinal as substrate, both in its free form and when bound to cellular retinol-binding protein.

CIViC holds 3 clinical evidence items and 0 assertions across 2 variants, naming Tretinoin.

## Fields

- Kind: Target
- Last checked: 2026-09-23
- Also known as: aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family member A2; Retinal dehydrogenase 2; RALDH2
- Tags: cancer-genes-wave
- Symbol: ALDH1A2
- Class: enzyme
- Biology: Catalyses the NAD-dependent oxidation of aldehyde substrates, such as all-trans-retinal and all-trans-13,14-dihydroretinal, to their corresponding carboxylic acids, all-trans-retinoate and all-trans-13,14-dihydroretinoate, respectively. Retinoate signalling is critical for the transcriptional control of many genes, for instance it is crucial for initiation of meiosis in both male and female. Recognises retinal as substrate, both in its free form and when bound to cellular retinol-binding protein. Can metabolise octanal and decanal, but has only very low activity with benzaldehyde, acetaldehyde and propanal. Displays complete lack of activity with citral. Location: Cytoplasm (UniProt). Locus 15q21.3 (HGNC).
- Where found: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: CIViC evidence names this disease

## Notes

- Written by scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts from CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC and UniProt; the function text is UniProt's, condensed and in UK spelling. Roles: CIViC lists 1 therapies; CIViC holds 3 clinical evidence items on its variants. Evidence tier "clinical-evidence" is the strongest of those signals.
- Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate.

## Sources

- HGNC HGNC:15472: https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:15472
- UniProt O94788: https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/O94788/entry
- NCBI Gene 8854: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/8854
- Ensembl ENSG00000128918: https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000128918

## Connected records

- collections: [CIViC](https://onco.cc/collections/civic/)
- cancers: [Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/head-and-neck/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/aldh1a2.json