Synonyms: Actigall® | UDCA
ursodeoxycholic acid is an approved drug (UK (2003))
Compound class:
Metabolite
Comment: Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) acts as an antagonist of the bile acid receptor farnesoid X receptor (FXR) [5].
SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: ACE2's presence on host cells confers susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. UDCA attenuates bile acid-induced, FXR-mediated upregulation of ACE2 expression in vitro and in vivo [1]. For this effect, UDCA has been proposed as a repurposing drug with antiviral potential against SARS-CoV-2. It is hypothesised that UDCA would reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection potential by lowering the number of ACE2 binding sites on relevant tissues. In support of this theory, a correlation between UDCA treatment for liver conditions and a lower risk of developing severe COVID-19 has been identified, Ursodeoxycholic acid is found in large quantities in bear bile [2] and this results in the practice of 'farming' bears for bile extraction, in some countries. ![]() Ligand Activity Visualisation ChartsThese are box plot that provide a unique visualisation, summarising all the activity data for a ligand taken from ChEMBL and GtoPdb across multiple targets and species. Click on a plot to see the median, interquartile range, low and high data points. A value of zero indicates that no data are available. A separate chart is created for each target, and where possible the algorithm tries to merge ChEMBL and GtoPdb targets by matching them on name and UniProt accession, for each available species. However, please note that inconsistency in naming of targets may lead to data for the same target being reported across multiple charts. ✖ |
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InChI standard identifier | Download |
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Molecular structure representations generated using Open Babel