# PRKCZ

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

## TL;DR

PRKCZ (Protein kinase C zeta type) is a protein kinase, an enzyme that switches other proteins on by adding phosphate groups. The public catalogues list it as a drug target, and an approved or late-stage drug is recorded against it. Tied to Leukaemia, Myeloproliferative neoplasms, Systemic mastocytosis and 1 more.

## Summary

Calcium- and diacylglycerol-independent serine/threonine-protein kinase that functions in phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway and mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase cascade, and is involved in NF-kappa-B activation, mitogenic signalling, cell proliferation, cell polarity, inflammatory response and maintenance of long-term potentiation (LTP). Upon lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment in macrophages, or following mitogenic stimuli, functions downstream of PI3K to activate MAP2K1/MEK1-MAPK1/ERK2 signalling cascade independently of RAF1 activation. Required for insulin-dependent activation of AKT3, but may function as an adapter rather than a direct activator.

Open Targets scores its association with cancer at 0.64 (direct and indirect evidence; datatypes literature 0.93, animal model 0.32, genetic association 0.37, clinical 0.92).

## Fields

- Kind: Target
- Last checked: 2026-09-23
- Also known as: protein kinase C zeta; Protein kinase C zeta type; PKC2
- Tags: cancer-genes-wave
- Symbol: PRKCZ
- Class: kinase
- Biology: Calcium- and diacylglycerol-independent serine/threonine-protein kinase that functions in phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway and mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase cascade, and is involved in NF-kappa-B activation, mitogenic signalling, cell proliferation, cell polarity, inflammatory response and maintenance of long-term potentiation (LTP). Upon lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment in macrophages, or following mitogenic stimuli, functions downstream of PI3K to activate MAP2K1/MEK1-MAPK1/ERK2 signalling cascade independently of RAF1 activation. Required for insulin-dependent activation of AKT3, but may function as an adapter rather than a direct activator. Upon insulin treatment may act as a downstream effector of PI3K and contribute to the activation of translocation of the glucose transporter SLC2A4/GLUT4 and subsequent glucose transport in adipocytes. In EGF-induced cells, binds and activates MAP2K5/MEK5-MAPK7/ERK5 independently of its kinase activity and can activate JUN promoter through MEF2C. Through binding with SQSTM1/p62, functions in interleukin-1 signalling and activation of NF-kappa-B with the specific adapters RIPK1 and TRAF6. Location: Cytoplasm; Endosome; Cell junction; Membrane (UniProt). Locus 1p36.33 (HGNC).
- Where found: Leukaemia: Open Targets association 0.57 with leukaemia (MONDO_0005059); Myeloproliferative neoplasms: Open Targets association 0.56 with myeloproliferative neoplasm (MONDO_0020076); Systemic mastocytosis: Open Targets association 0.54 with systemic mastocytosis (MONDO_0016586); Acute myeloid leukaemia: Open Targets association 0.56 with acute myeloid leukaemia (MONDO_0018874)

## 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 0.94. Evidence tier "approved-drug" is the strongest of those signals.
- Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate.

## Sources

- HGNC HGNC:9412: https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:9412
- UniProt Q05513: https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q05513/entry
- NCBI Gene 5590: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/5590
- Ensembl ENSG00000067606: https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000067606

## Connected records

- collections: [Open Targets Platform](https://onco.cc/collections/open-targets/)
- cancers: [Acute myeloid leukaemia](https://onco.cc/cancers/aml/), [Leukaemia (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/leukaemia/), [Myeloproliferative neoplasms (PV, ET, myelofibrosis)](https://onco.cc/cancers/myeloproliferative-neoplasms/), [Systemic mastocytosis](https://onco.cc/cancers/systemic-mastocytosis/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/prkcz.json