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Protein / target

Dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (quinone), mitochondrial

Encoded byDHODHQ02127Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
Clinically validated
Therapeutic maturity
2
Approved medicines
Open Targets target-level
View by indication →
30
Clinical trials
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Approved Drug

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (quinone)

Strongest disease association

Coronary Artery Disease

Via encoding gene DHODH · Genetic evidence · score 0.54

Therapeutic position

Established drug target

Small molecules

Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.

Protein profile

UniProt 2026_02

Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.

Function overview

Catalyzes the conversion of dihydroorotate to orotate with quinone as electron acceptor.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Catalyzes the conversion of dihydroorotate to orotate with quinone as electron acceptor. Required for UMP biosynthesis via de novo pathway

Subcellular location

Mitochondrion inner membrane
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (9)

Gene Ontology

  • Cmitochondrial inner membrane
  • Cmitochondrion
  • Fdihydroorotase activity
  • Fdihydroorotate dehydrogenase (quinone) activity
  • Fdihydroorotate dehydrogenase activity
  • P'de novo' pyrimidine nucleobase biosynthetic process
  • P'de novo' UMP biosynthetic process
  • Ppyrimidine ribonucleotide biosynthetic process
  • PUDP biosynthetic process

395 aa · 43 kDa

Biological roles

What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.

Metabolic enzyme activityGO
View supporting evidence

Metabolic enzyme activity

  • ·dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (quinone) activity
  • ·dihydroorotate dehydrogenase activity

Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.

Approved medicines with mapped indications

1 medicine · 2 areas

Approved therapies targeting this protein, grouped by what they are approved to treat — the disease-first view of the medicines below. Relationships come from the canonical approved-indication graph (ChEMBL phase-4), the same source as the drug cards.

Arthritis, Psoriatic1 medicine
Arthritis, Rheumatoid1 medicine

2 medicines meet Open Targets' target-level approved-medicine definition; the 1 shown here are those on this page with a canonical approved disease indication in the graph. Approved indications from ChEMBL (phase-4), via the canonical drug→disease graph.

Drugs targeting this protein

1

How approved and investigational drugs engage this protein — mechanism and action type, direct vs complex targeting, and how broadly each acts across other targets. A drug-first view (the section above groups the approved ones disease-first); direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.

leflunomide
Narrow target profileApprovedInhibitor

Dihydroorotate dehydrogenase inhibitor

Indicated for Arthritis, Psoriatic, Arthritis, Rheumatoid

Direct interaction with this protein · Only this protein recorded as a target

ChEMBL mechanism, action type, target identity and approved indications. Open Targets clinical status.

Translational evidence

Open Targets 26

Why this target matters therapeutically, strongest evidence first. Disease associations are gene-level (via the gene that encodes this protein) and open into the full confidence synthesis; the development universe, tractability and safety annotations are target-level, from Open Targets.

Strongest disease associations · via encoding gene DHODH

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene DHODH that encodes this protein — not a direct protein–disease relationship. Ranked by Forefront's causal-directness weighting, so genetically- and clinically-evidenced diseases lead over ones that merely share the literature.

Arthritis, Rheumatoid
0.75Moderately supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.60

Multiple Sclerosis
0.73Moderately supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.59

Arthritis, Psoriatic
0.65Moderately supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.52

Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting
0.60Moderately supported

Clinical evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.48

Coronary Artery Disease
0.55Moderately supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.33

View evidence synthesis (5)
Arthritis, RheumatoidModerately supported
0.75
agreement 0.590.90
Clinical95%Literature5%

Open Targets aggregate 0.60 · 2 independent evidence families

Multiple SclerosisModerately supported
0.73
agreement 0.580.89
Clinical97%Literature3%

Open Targets aggregate 0.59 · 2 independent evidence families

Arthritis, PsoriaticModerately supported
0.65
agreement 0.490.80
Clinical97%Literature3%

Open Targets aggregate 0.52 · 2 independent evidence families

Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-RemittingModerately supported
0.60
agreement 0.440.75
Clinical93%Literature7%

Open Targets aggregate 0.48 · 2 independent evidence families

Coronary Artery DiseaseModerately supported
0.55
agreement 0.410.69
Genetic98%Literature2%

Open Targets aggregate 0.33 · 2 independent evidence families

The evidence agreement range shows how closely the independent evidence families agree — it is not a statistical confidence interval, and nothing here is fitted to outcome data. Derived from Open Targets evidence types under Forefront weighting; the per-type scores above show the calculation.

Show all associations
Arthritis, Rheumatoid0.60
Multiple Sclerosis0.59
Arthritis, Psoriatic0.52
Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting0.48
COVID-190.34
Coronary Artery Disease0.33
Glioblastoma0.28

Drug development

6 compounds recorded · 2 approved · 4 in clinical development

Open Targets' development universe — every compound recorded against the target at any stage, not all approved medicines. Distinct from the 1 drug that targets this protein in Forefront's canonical graph (1 with a mapped approved indication, shown above): these count different sets and are not a subset relation.

View all recorded compounds (6)
ASLAN-003Phase 2
BREQUINARPhase 2
LEFLUNOMIDEApproval
VIDOFLUDIMUSPhase 3
EMVODODSTATPhase 2 3
TERIFLUNOMIDEApproval

Open Targets known-drugs universe. Drug name and highest clinical stage only — the disease relationship is NOT read from this slice (it carries trial-context noise); approved indications come from the canonical graph above.

Tractability

Small moleculesStrong

Approved Drug and Structure with Ligand support this modality.

AntibodiesEmerging

Feasibility evidence (uniprot sigp or tmhmm) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

Protein degradersEmerging

Feasibility evidence (literature and database ubiquitination) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

View underlying tractability evidence (10)
SM · Approved DrugSM · Structure with LigandSM · High-Quality LigandSM · High-Quality PocketSM · Druggable FamilyAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMMPR · LiteraturePR · Database UbiquitinationPR · Half-life DataPR · Small Molecule Binder

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Clinical trials

30

Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein. Ranked by active status, then clinical phase and recency, and spread across the targeting drugs.

View all trials (26)

RECRUITING · via leflunomide · NCT06229340

ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING · via leflunomide · NCT04370483

RECRUITING · via leflunomide · NCT05937880

COMPLETED · via leflunomide · NCT00451971

ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.

What's happening now

4

Recent therapeutic activity around this target — regulatory actions, clinical trials and safety signals for a drug that targets this protein, plus publications where such a drug is a genuine subject. Every item is reached indirectly through the drug, not the protein itself; incidental mentions (a paper that merely measures a drug) and press items are excluded.

  1. Regulatory approval2010-11-28

    Approval: Leflunomide ratiopharm (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via leflunomide

  2. Regulatory approval2010-07-27

    Approval: Leflunomide medac (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via leflunomide

  3. Regulatory approval2010-01-08

    Approval: Leflunomide Zentiva (previously Leflunomide Winthrop) (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via leflunomide

  4. Regulatory approval1999-09-02

    Approval: Arava (EMA)

    ema · regulatory · ema · via leflunomide

Objective event titles are shown unmodified; the event kind and significance line are derived from structured fields. Forefront AttentionEvent stream aggregating Europe PMC Regulatory filings ClinicalTrials.gov.