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Protein / target

Stearoyl-CoA desaturase

Encoded bySCDO00767Homo sapiensSwiss-Prot
UniProt: O00767Ensembl: ENSG00000099194HGNC: HGNC:10571NCBI Gene: 6319
Small-molecule tractable
Druggability
Structure with Ligand
1
Research papers

Protein at a glance

Biological role

Palmitoyl-CoA 9-desaturase

Strongest disease association

Cataract

Via encoding gene SCD · Genetic evidence · score 0.63

Research activity

Emerging research

1 papers · latest 2024

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

Stearoyl-CoA desaturase that utilizes O(2) and electrons from reduced cytochrome b5 to introduce the first double bond into saturated fatty acyl-CoA substrates.

View complete UniProt function annotation

Stearoyl-CoA desaturase that utilizes O(2) and electrons from reduced cytochrome b5 to introduce the first double bond into saturated fatty acyl-CoA substrates (PubMed:15907797, PubMed:18765284). Catalyzes the insertion of a cis double bond at the delta-9 position into fatty acyl-CoA substrates including palmitoyl-CoA and stearoyl-CoA (PubMed:15907797, PubMed:18765284). Gives rise to a mixture of 16:1 and 18:1 unsaturated fatty acids (PubMed:15610069). Plays an important role in lipid biosynthesis. Plays an important role in regulating the expression of genes that are involved in lipogenesis and in regulating mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation (By similarity). Plays an important role in body energy homeostasis (By similarity). Contributes to the biosynthesis of membrane phospholipids, cholesterol esters and triglycerides (By similarity)

Subcellular location

Endoplasmic reticulum membrane
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (10)

Gene Ontology

  • Cendoplasmic reticulum
  • Cendoplasmic reticulum membrane
  • Cmembrane
  • Firon ion binding
  • Foxidoreductase activity
  • Fpalmitoyl-CoA 9-desaturase activity
  • Fstearoyl-CoA 9-desaturase activity
  • Pmonounsaturated fatty acid biosynthetic process
  • Ppositive regulation of cold-induced thermogenesis
  • Punsaturated fatty acid biosynthetic process

359 aa · 42 kDa

Biological roles

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

Lipid & lipoprotein metabolismUniProt · GO
View supporting evidence

Lipid & lipoprotein metabolism

  • ·Stearoyl-CoA desaturase that utilizes O(2) and electrons from reduced cytochrome b5 to i…
  • ·monounsaturated fatty acid biosynthetic process
  • ·unsaturated fatty acid biosynthetic process

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

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 SCD

Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene SCD 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.

Cataract
0.63Moderately supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.38

Cholelithiasis
0.53Moderately supported

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.32

Aneurysm
0.45Limited support

Genetic evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.27

Alzheimer's Disease
0.38Preliminary

Pathway evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.48 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Parkinson's Disease
0.35Preliminary

Pathway evidence dominant · Open Targets 0.48 · no direct causal or clinical evidence

View evidence synthesis (5)
CataractModerately supported
0.63
agreement 0.49–0.77
Genetic100%Literature0%

Open Targets aggregate 0.38 · 2 independent evidence families

CholelithiasisModerately supported
0.53
agreement 0.41–0.65
Genetic100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.32 · 1 independent evidence family

AneurysmLimited support
0.45
agreement 0.33–0.57
Genetic100%

Open Targets aggregate 0.27 · 1 independent evidence family

Alzheimer's DiseasePreliminary
0.38
agreement 0.23–0.53
Pathway73%Literature25%RNA expression2%

Open Targets aggregate 0.48 · 3 independent evidence families · no direct causal or clinical evidence

Parkinson's DiseasePreliminary
0.35
agreement 0.17–0.53
Pathway82%Literature18%

Open Targets aggregate 0.48 · 2 independent evidence families · no direct causal or clinical evidence

This ranking differs from Open Targets' own: re-weighting moves genetically-evidenced diseases above more heavily co-mentioned ones. 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
Alzheimer's Disease0.48
Parkinson's Disease0.48
Multiple Sclerosis0.46
Neurodegenerative Diseases0.46
Lysosomal Storage Diseases0.46
Cataract0.38
Cholelithiasis0.32
Aneurysm0.27

Tractability

Small molecules — Emerging

Feasibility evidence (structure with ligand and high-quality ligand) — no clinical-stage drug of this modality recorded.

Antibodies — Emerging

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

Protein degraders — Emerging

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

View underlying tractability evidence (7)
SM · Structure with LigandSM · High-Quality LigandSM · Druggable FamilyAB · UniProt SigP or TMHMMPR · Database UbiquitinationPR · Half-life DataPR · Small Molecule Binder

Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.

Safety-related annotations

Increased, Liver SteatosisAOP-WikiAccumulation, Liver lipidAOP-WikiIncreased, Liver SteatosisAOP-WikiN/A, Liver SteatosisAOP-Wiki

Terms indexed against this target in Open Targets' safety data, with their datasource. These are annotations, not causal claims: the direction of effect (whether activation or inhibition is implicated), species and evidence strength are not captured here, so an entry does not mean that modulating this target is known to cause that condition.

Research activity

1 papers · to 2024

Papers linked directly to this protein. This is the protein's own literature — descriptor-derived papers are kept separate below.

Most cited

Stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1: a potential therapeutic target for neurological disorders.13 cites

Loix M · Molecular neurodegeneration · 2024

Recent

Stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1: a potential therapeutic target for neurological disorders.

Loix M · Molecular neurodegeneration · 2024

Europe PMC papers linked directly to this protein.