# RNASEL

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

## TL;DR

RNASEL (2-5A-dependent ribonuclease) is an enzyme. In the public catalogues the evidence so far is association rather than a proven role. Tied to Prostate cancer.

## Summary

Endoribonuclease that functions in the interferon (IFN) antiviral response. In INF treated and virus infected cells, RNASEL probably mediates its antiviral effects through a combination of direct cleavage of single-stranded viral RNAs, inhibition of protein synthesis through the degradation of rRNA, induction of apoptosis, and induction of other antiviral genes. RNASEL mediated apoptosis is the result of a JNK-dependent stress-response pathway leading to cytochrome c release from mitochondria and caspase-dependent apoptosis.

Open Targets scores its association with cancer at 0.58 (direct and indirect evidence; datatypes literature 0.96, genetic association 0.78, genetic literature 0.61).

## Fields

- Kind: Target
- Last checked: 2026-09-23
- Also known as: ribonuclease L; 2-5A-dependent ribonuclease; RNS4; PRCA1
- Tags: cancer-genes-wave
- Symbol: RNASEL
- Class: enzyme
- Biology: Endoribonuclease that functions in the interferon (IFN) antiviral response. In INF treated and virus infected cells, RNASEL probably mediates its antiviral effects through a combination of direct cleavage of single-stranded viral RNAs, inhibition of protein synthesis through the degradation of rRNA, induction of apoptosis, and induction of other antiviral genes. RNASEL mediated apoptosis is the result of a JNK-dependent stress-response pathway leading to cytochrome c release from mitochondria and caspase-dependent apoptosis. Therefore, activation of RNASEL could lead to elimination of virus infected cells under some circumstances. In the crosstalk between autophagy and apoptosis proposed to induce autophagy as an early stress response to small double-stranded RNA and at later stages of prolonged stress to activate caspase-dependent proteolytic cleavage of BECN1 to terminate autophagy and promote apoptosis. Might play a central role in the regulation of mRNA turnover. Location: Cytoplasm; Mitochondrion (UniProt). Locus 1q25.3 (HGNC).
- Where found: Prostate cancer: Open Targets association 0.56 with prostate cancer (MONDO_0008315)

## 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: none stated by the sources. Evidence tier "association-only" is the strongest of those signals.
- Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate.

## Sources

- HGNC HGNC:10050: https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:10050
- UniProt Q05823: https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q05823/entry
- NCBI Gene 6041: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/6041
- Ensembl ENSG00000135828: https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000135828

## Connected records

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

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