# GHSR

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

## TL;DR

GHSR (Growth hormone secretagogue receptor type 1) is a gene. The public catalogues list it as a drug target, and an approved or late-stage drug is recorded against it.

## Summary

G protein-coupled receptor specific to ghrelin, an appetite-regulating peptide hormone commonly found in stomach. Upon activation, stimulates appetite and promotes growth hormone secretion. Ghrelin binding causes a conformation change that triggers signalling via guanine nucleotide-binding proteins (G proteins) and modulates the activity of downstream effectors, such as phospholipase C.

Open Targets scores its association with cancer at 0.60 (direct and indirect evidence; datatypes literature 0.87, genetic association 0.16, clinical 0.92).

## Fields

- Kind: Target
- Last checked: 2026-09-23
- Also known as: growth hormone secretagogue receptor; Growth hormone secretagogue receptor type 1; GHS-R1a; GHS-R; GHSR-1a
- Tags: cancer-genes-wave
- Symbol: GHSR
- Class: other
- Biology: G protein-coupled receptor specific to ghrelin, an appetite-regulating peptide hormone commonly found in stomach. Upon activation, stimulates appetite and promotes growth hormone secretion. Ghrelin binding causes a conformation change that triggers signalling via guanine nucleotide-binding proteins (G proteins) and modulates the activity of downstream effectors, such as phospholipase C. GHSR is coupled to G(q) G proteins and mediates production of diacylglycerol (DAG) and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3). Also binds other growth hormone releasing peptides (GHRP) (e.g. Met-enkephalin and GHRP-6) as well as non-peptide, low molecular weight secretagogues (e.g. Location: Cell membrane (UniProt). Locus 3q26.31 (HGNC).

## 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: Open Targets known-drug datatype score 0.92. Evidence tier "approved-drug" is the strongest of those signals.
- Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate.

## Sources

- HGNC HGNC:4267: https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:4267
- UniProt Q92847: https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q92847/entry
- NCBI Gene 2693: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/2693
- Ensembl ENSG00000121853: https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000121853

## Connected records

- collections: [Open Targets Platform](https://onco.cc/collections/open-targets/)

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