AKR7A2 Gene

HGNC Family	Aldo-keto reductases (AKR)
Name	aldo-keto reductase family 7, member A2 (aflatoxin aldehyde reductase)
Description	The protein encoded by this gene belongs to the aldo/keto reductase (AKR) superfamily and AKR7 family, which are involved in the detoxification of aldehydes and ketones. The AKR7 family consists of 3 genes that are present in a cluster on the p arm of chromosome 1. This protein, thought to be localized in the golgi, catalyzes the NADPH-dependent reduction of succinic semialdehyde to the endogenous neuromodulator, gamma-hydroxybutyrate. It may also function as a detoxication enzyme in the reduction of aflatoxin B1 and 2-carboxybenzaldehyde. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Mar 2016]
Summary	{"type": "root", "children": [{"type": "p", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "\n Aldo‐keto reductase family 7 member A2 (AKR7A2) is a multifunctional enzyme that plays several important roles in cellular metabolism and defense. In neural cells, AKR7A2 functions as the primary NADPH‐dependent reductase that converts succinic semialdehyde (SSA) to γ‐hydroxybutyrate (GHB), thereby regulating the levels of this neuromodulator and influencing neurotransmitter metabolism."}, {"type": "fg", "children": [{"type": "fg_f", "ref": "1"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " In addition to its role in GHB biosynthesis, AKR7A2 contributes significantly to the detoxification of reactive carbonyl compounds. Its ability to reduce toxic aldehydes—such as methyl glyoxal and 4‐hydroxynonenal—protects cells from oxidative injury and carbonyl stress, as evidenced by studies in hepatic and neuronal cell models."}, {"type": "fg", "children": [{"type": "fg_fs", "start_ref": "3", "end_ref": "5"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " AKR7A2 is also expressed in human immune cells, where its increased expression in monocytes suggests a role in the detoxification of aflatoxin B₁ metabolites."}, {"type": "fg", "children": [{"type": "fg_f", "ref": "6"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " Moreover, in human cardiomyocytes, AKR7A2 is the most abundant anthracycline‐metabolizing enzyme and contributes to the formation of cardiotoxic C-13 alcohol metabolites; its expression is regulated by NF-κB via promoter response elements, indicating a potential role in drug-induced cardiotoxicity."}, {"type": "fg", "children": [{"type": "fg_f", "ref": "7"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " Finally, a physical interaction between AKR7A2 and cytoglobin has been demonstrated, implying additional links with cellular redox regulation."}, {"type": "fg", "children": [{"type": "fg_f", "ref": "8"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " Collectively, these findings highlight the versatile functions of AKR7A2 in detoxification, neurotransmitter metabolism, and xenobiotic processing, with implications for its roles in neuroprotection, immune response, and chemotherapeutic pharmacology.\n "}]}, {"type": "rg", "children": [{"type": "r", "ref": 1, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Robert C Lyon, Stuart M Johnston, David G Watson, et al. "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Synthesis and catabolism of gamma-hydroxybutyrate in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells: role of the aldo-keto reductase AKR7A2."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "J Biol Chem (2007)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.1074/jbc.M702465200"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M702465200"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "17591773"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17591773"}]}, {"type": "r", "ref": 2, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Robert C Lyon, Stuart M Johnston, Andreas Panopoulos, et al. "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Enzymes involved in the metabolism of gamma-hydroxybutyrate in SH-SY5Y cells: identification of an iron-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase ADHFe1."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Chem Biol Interact (2009)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.1016/j.cbi.2008.10.025"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbi.2008.10.025"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "19013439"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19013439"}]}, {"type": "r", "ref": 3, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Dan Li, Shuren Ma, Elizabeth M Ellis "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Nrf2-mediated adaptive response to methyl glyoxal in HepG2 cells involves the induction of AKR7A2."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Chem Biol Interact (2015)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.1016/j.cbi.2014.10.019"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbi.2014.10.019"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "25451587"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25451587"}]}, {"type": "r", "ref": 4, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Dan Li, Michele Ferrari, Elizabeth M Ellis "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Human aldo-keto reductase AKR7A2 protects against the cytotoxicity and mutagenicity of reactive aldehydes and lowers intracellular reactive oxygen species in hamster V79-4 cells."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Chem Biol Interact (2012)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.1016/j.cbi.2011.09.007"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbi.2011.09.007"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "22001351"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22001351"}]}, {"type": "r", "ref": 5, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Dan Li, Elizabeth M Ellis "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Inducible protection of human astrocytoma 1321N1 cells against hydrogen peroxide and aldehyde toxicity by 7-hydroxycoumarin is associated with the upregulation of aldo-keto reductases."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Neurotoxicology (2012)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.1016/j.neuro.2012.08.015"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuro.2012.08.015"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "22964423"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22964423"}]}, {"type": "r", "ref": 6, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Abbas Bahari, Jalil Mehrzad, Mahmoud Mahmoudi, et al. "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "GST-M1 is transcribed moreso than AKR7A2 in AFB₁-exposed human monocytes and lymphocytes."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "J Immunotoxicol (2015)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.3109/1547691X.2014.925994"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.3109/1547691X.2014.925994"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "25027672"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25027672"}]}, {"type": "r", "ref": 7, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Adolfo Quiñones-Lombraña, Amy Intini, Javier G Blanco "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Insights into the transcriptional regulation of the anthracycline reductase AKR7A2 in human cardiomyocytes."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Toxicol Lett (2019)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.1016/j.toxlet.2019.02.015"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxlet.2019.02.015"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "30817976"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30817976"}]}, {"type": "r", "ref": 8, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Xin Li, Shanshan Zou, Zhen Li, et al. "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "The identification of human aldo-keto reductase AKR7A2 as a novel cytoglobin-binding partner."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Cell Mol Biol Lett (2016)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.1186/s11658-016-0026-9"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.1186/s11658-016-0026-9"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "28536627"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28536627"}]}]}]}
Synonyms	AKR7, AFAR1, AFAR, AFB1-AR1
Proteins	ARK72_HUMAN
NCBI Gene ID	8574
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Predicted Functions
Co-expressed Genes
Expression in Tissues and Cell Lines

Functional Associations

AKR7A2 has 9,195 functional associations with biological entities spanning 9 categories (molecular profile, organism, functional term, phrase or reference, chemical, disease, phenotype or trait, structural feature, cell line, cell type or tissue, gene, protein or microRNA, sequence feature) extracted from 114 datasets.

Click the + buttons to view associations for AKR7A2 from the datasets below.

If available, associations are ranked by standardized value

Harmonizome 3.0

AKR7A2 Gene

Functional Associations

Please acknowledge the Harmonizome in your publications by citing the following reference(s):

	Dataset	Summary
	Achilles Cell Line Gene Essentiality Profiles	cell lines with fitness changed by AKR7A2 gene knockdown relative to other cell lines from the Achilles Cell Line Gene Essentiality Profiles dataset.
	Allen Brain Atlas Adult Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles	tissues with high or low expression of AKR7A2 gene relative to other tissues from the Allen Brain Atlas Adult Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	Allen Brain Atlas Adult Mouse Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles	tissues with high or low expression of AKR7A2 gene relative to other tissues from the Allen Brain Atlas Adult Mouse Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	Allen Brain Atlas Aging Dementia and Traumatic Brain Injury Tissue Sample Gene Expression Profiles	tissue samples with high or low expression of AKR7A2 gene relative to other tissue samples from the Allen Brain Atlas Aging Dementia and Traumatic Brain Injury Tissue Sample Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	Allen Brain Atlas Developing Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles by Microarray	tissue samples with high or low expression of AKR7A2 gene relative to other tissue samples from the Allen Brain Atlas Developing Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles by Microarray dataset.
	Allen Brain Atlas Developing Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles by RNA-seq	tissue samples with high or low expression of AKR7A2 gene relative to other tissue samples from the Allen Brain Atlas Developing Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles by RNA-seq dataset.
	Allen Brain Atlas Prenatal Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles	tissues with high or low expression of AKR7A2 gene relative to other tissues from the Allen Brain Atlas Prenatal Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	Biocarta Pathways	pathways involving AKR7A2 protein from the Biocarta Pathways dataset.
	BioGPS Cell Line Gene Expression Profiles	cell lines with high or low expression of AKR7A2 gene relative to other cell lines from the BioGPS Cell Line Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	BioGPS Human Cell Type and Tissue Gene Expression Profiles	cell types and tissues with high or low expression of AKR7A2 gene relative to other cell types and tissues from the BioGPS Human Cell Type and Tissue Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	BioGPS Mouse Cell Type and Tissue Gene Expression Profiles	cell types and tissues with high or low expression of AKR7A2 gene relative to other cell types and tissues from the BioGPS Mouse Cell Type and Tissue Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	Carcinogenome Chemical Perturbation Carcinogenicity Signatures	small molecule perturbations changing expression of AKR7A2 gene from the Carcinogenome Chemical Perturbation Carcinogenicity Signatures dataset.
	CCLE Cell Line Gene CNV Profiles	cell lines with high or low copy number of AKR7A2 gene relative to other cell lines from the CCLE Cell Line Gene CNV Profiles dataset.
	CCLE Cell Line Gene Expression Profiles	cell lines with high or low expression of AKR7A2 gene relative to other cell lines from the CCLE Cell Line Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	CCLE Cell Line Proteomics	Cell lines associated with AKR7A2 protein from the CCLE Cell Line Proteomics dataset.
	ChEA Transcription Factor Binding Site Profiles	transcription factor binding site profiles with transcription factor binding evidence at the promoter of AKR7A2 gene from the CHEA Transcription Factor Binding Site Profiles dataset.
	ChEA Transcription Factor Targets	transcription factors binding the promoter of AKR7A2 gene in low- or high-throughput transcription factor functional studies from the CHEA Transcription Factor Targets dataset.
	ChEA Transcription Factor Targets 2022	transcription factors binding the promoter of AKR7A2 gene in low- or high-throughput transcription factor functional studies from the CHEA Transcription Factor Targets 2022 dataset.
	CM4AI U2OS Cell Map Protein Localization Assemblies	assemblies containing AKR7A2 protein from integrated AP-MS and IF data from the CM4AI U2OS Cell Map Protein Localization Assemblies dataset.
	CMAP Signatures of Differentially Expressed Genes for Small Molecules	small molecule perturbations changing expression of AKR7A2 gene from the CMAP Signatures of Differentially Expressed Genes for Small Molecules dataset.
	COMPARTMENTS Curated Protein Localization Evidence Scores	cellular components containing AKR7A2 protein from the COMPARTMENTS Curated Protein Localization Evidence Scores dataset.
	COMPARTMENTS Curated Protein Localization Evidence Scores 2025	cellular components containing AKR7A2 protein from the COMPARTMENTS Curated Protein Localization Evidence Scores 2025 dataset.
	COMPARTMENTS Experimental Protein Localization Evidence Scores	cellular components containing AKR7A2 protein in low- or high-throughput protein localization assays from the COMPARTMENTS Experimental Protein Localization Evidence Scores dataset.
	COMPARTMENTS Text-mining Protein Localization Evidence Scores	cellular components co-occuring with AKR7A2 protein in abstracts of biomedical publications from the COMPARTMENTS Text-mining Protein Localization Evidence Scores dataset.
	COMPARTMENTS Text-mining Protein Localization Evidence Scores 2025	cellular components co-occuring with AKR7A2 protein in abstracts of biomedical publications from the COMPARTMENTS Text-mining Protein Localization Evidence Scores 2025 dataset.
	COSMIC Cell Line Gene CNV Profiles	cell lines with high or low copy number of AKR7A2 gene relative to other cell lines from the COSMIC Cell Line Gene CNV Profiles dataset.
	COSMIC Cell Line Gene Mutation Profiles	cell lines with AKR7A2 gene mutations from the COSMIC Cell Line Gene Mutation Profiles dataset.
	CTD Gene-Chemical Interactions	chemicals interacting with AKR7A2 gene/protein from the curated CTD Gene-Chemical Interactions dataset.
	CTD Gene-Disease Associations	diseases associated with AKR7A2 gene/protein from the curated CTD Gene-Disease Associations dataset.
	DeepCoverMOA Drug Mechanisms of Action	small molecule perturbations with high or low expression of AKR7A2 protein relative to other small molecule perturbations from the DeepCoverMOA Drug Mechanisms of Action dataset.
	DepMap CRISPR Gene Dependency	cell lines with fitness changed by AKR7A2 gene knockdown relative to other cell lines from the DepMap CRISPR Gene Dependency dataset.
	DISEASES Text-mining Gene-Disease Association Evidence Scores	diseases co-occuring with AKR7A2 gene in abstracts of biomedical publications from the DISEASES Text-mining Gene-Disease Assocation Evidence Scores dataset.
	DISEASES Text-mining Gene-Disease Association Evidence Scores 2025	diseases co-occuring with AKR7A2 gene in abstracts of biomedical publications from the DISEASES Text-mining Gene-Disease Assocation Evidence Scores 2025 dataset.
	DisGeNET Gene-Disease Associations	diseases associated with AKR7A2 gene in GWAS and other genetic association datasets from the DisGeNET Gene-Disease Associations dataset.
	DisGeNET Gene-Phenotype Associations	phenotypes associated with AKR7A2 gene in GWAS and other genetic association datasets from the DisGeNET Gene-Phenoptype Associations dataset.
	ENCODE Histone Modification Site Profiles	histone modification site profiles with high histone modification abundance at AKR7A2 gene from the ENCODE Histone Modification Site Profiles dataset.
	ENCODE Transcription Factor Binding Site Profiles	transcription factor binding site profiles with transcription factor binding evidence at the promoter of AKR7A2 gene from the ENCODE Transcription Factor Binding Site Profiles dataset.
	ENCODE Transcription Factor Targets	transcription factors binding the promoter of AKR7A2 gene in ChIP-seq datasets from the ENCODE Transcription Factor Targets dataset.
	ESCAPE Omics Signatures of Genes and Proteins for Stem Cells	PubMedIDs of publications reporting gene signatures containing AKR7A2 from the ESCAPE Omics Signatures of Genes and Proteins for Stem Cells dataset.
	GAD High Level Gene-Disease Associations	diseases associated with AKR7A2 gene in GWAS and other genetic association datasets from the GAD High Level Gene-Disease Associations dataset.