MC1R as a Radioligand Therapy Target
MC1R, melanocortin 1 receptor, is a cell-surface protein (GPCR). No tumor protein staining is recorded for it in Human Protein Atlas immunohistochemistry. Published literature reports that MC1R internalizes after ligand binding, which helps retain a radionuclide inside tumor cells. Clinical status: Clinical-stage (up to phase 3, any modality).
Is MC1R a good radioligand therapy target?
Scored against the six criteria that decide whether a protein can become a radioligand therapy:
- ✅ Cell-surface accessibility: Localized to the cell surface, so a radioligand can reach it from circulation.
- ❌ Tumor expression: No tumor staining in HPA immunohistochemistry.
- ✅ Internalization: Reported to internalize, which favors radionuclide retention.
- ✅ Clinical precedent: Clinical-stage (up to phase 3, any modality)
- ❔ Shedding: Not yet assessed.
- ❔ Normal-tissue dosimetry: Check kidney, liver, bone marrow and salivary expression in the Human Protein Atlas tissue atlas.
MC1R expression in cancer
No Human Protein Atlas tumor immunohistochemistry data is available for MC1R.
Is MC1R internalized?
Yes. MC1R-targeted liposomal delivery achieves melanocyte-preferential internalization through lipid raft-dependent endocytosis and macropinocytosis.
Sources: PMID 42388082 · PMID 42097084 · PMID 32120314 · PMID 31644317 · PMID 29058865. AI-extracted from abstracts, so verify before citing.
MC1R clinical trials
Clinical-stage (up to phase 3, any modality). Nuclens hasn't indexed trials for MC1R yet. Search ClinicalTrials.gov for MC1R trials.
MC1R normal tissue expression
Normal-tissue expression in dose-limiting organs (kidney, liver, bone marrow, salivary glands) drives radioligand dosimetry risk. Nuclens is re-validating its normal-tissue values, so they are not shown here yet. See MC1R in the Human Protein Atlas tissue atlas, and read how normal-tissue expression predicts radioligand dosimetry risk.
MC1R gene essentiality (DepMap)
CRISPR knockout effect across 1258 cancer cell lines: -0.02 (not essential). Radioligands kill by radiation, not by blocking the target, so essentiality matters less than for inhibitors. A non-essential target can still be an excellent radioligand target.
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Subcellular localization: UniProt via Open Targets (CC BY 4.0 / CC0). Tumor immunohistochemistry: Human Protein Atlas (CC BY-SA 4.0). Clinical trials: ClinicalTrials.gov (public domain). Gene essentiality: DepMap (CC BY 4.0). Internalization and shedding: AI-extracted from PubMed abstracts, so verify against the cited papers before relying on them. Nuclens is a first-pass triage layer, not a substitute for wet-lab validation or clinical dosimetry. Derived expression data on this page is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.