Protein / target
Vitamin D3 receptor
Protein at a glance
Biological role
Bile acid nuclear receptor activity
Primary system
Endocrine & metabolic
Strongest disease association
Hypocalcemic vitamin D-resistant rickets
Therapeutic maturity
Clinically validated target
Druggability
Small molecule
Clinical development
9 approved · 9 in clinical development
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function
Nuclear receptor for calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D3 which mediates the action of this vitamin on cells (PubMed:10678179, PubMed:15728261, PubMed:16913708, PubMed:28698609, PubMed:37478846). Enters the nucleus upon vitamin D3 binding where it forms heterodimers with the retinoid X receptor/RXR (PubMed:28698609). The VDR-RXR heterodimers bind to specific response elements on DNA and activate the transcription of vitamin D3-responsive target genes (PubMed:28698609). Plays a central role in calcium homeostasis (By similarity). Also functions as a receptor for the secondary bile acid lithocholic acid (LCA) and its metabolites (PubMed:12016314, PubMed:32354638)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (38)Hide
Domains & features
Gene Ontology
- Cchromatin
- Ccytoplasm
- Cnucleoplasm
- Cnucleus
- Creceptor complex
- CRNA polymerase II transcription regulator complex
- Fbile acid nuclear receptor activity
- Fcalcitriol binding
- FDNA binding
- FDNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
- Flithocholic acid binding
- Fnuclear receptor activity
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
View supporting evidenceHide supporting evidence
Nuclear receptor signalling
- ·Nuclear receptor for calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D3 which mediates the action…
- ·bile acid nuclear receptor activity
- ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
- ·nuclear receptor activity
Transcriptional regulation
- ·Nuclear receptor for calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D3 which mediates the action…
- ·RNA polymerase II transcription regulator complex
- ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
- ·RNA polymerase II cis-regulatory region sequence-specific DNA binding
Ion channel gating
- ·phosphate ion transmembrane transport
Metabolic enzyme activity
- ·vitamin D metabolic process
View underlying pathways (3)Hide underlying pathways
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Drugs targeting this protein
Whether each drug engages this protein directly or through a complex, and how many other targets are recorded for it. Direct binders with few recorded targets are listed first.
Vitamin D receptor agonist
Appears in clinical studies involving Hypocalcemia, hypoparathyroidism, chronic kidney disease, psoriasis
Vitamin D receptor agonist
Appears in clinical studies involving chronic kidney disease, secondary hyperparathyroidism, hyperparathyroidism, parathyroid gland disorder
Vitamin D receptor agonist
Vitamin D receptor agonist
Appears in clinical studies involving anemia (phenotype), Hypocalcemia, osteoporosis, Iron deficiency anemia
ChEMBL mechanism, action type and target identity. Open Targets clinical status and indications.
Translational evidence
Why this target matters therapeutically — disease associations, drugs in development, tractability and safety, from Open Targets.
Strongest genetic associations
Human genetic evidence — the most direct causal link between this target and a disease.
Highest-confidence therapeutic associations
Diseases where a drug acting on this target has already reached clinical development.
Highest overall evidence
Remaining associations by Open Targets' aggregated evidence score.
Show all associationsHide all associations
Open Targets ranks 3,851 associations for this target and we store the top 10 by aggregated score. The long tail is largely literature co-mention and RNA-expression evidence, not evidence that this target drives those diseases.
Known drugs · 18 total
rickets · hepatocellular carcinoma
chronic kidney disease · secondary hyperparathyroidism · hyperparathyroidism
psoriasis
osteoporosis
hypophosphatemic rickets · hypophosphatemia · hypoparathyroidism
psoriasis vulgaris · psoriasis · psoriatic arthritis
acute myeloid leukemia by FAB classification · prostate cancer · acute myeloid leukemia
Hypocalcemia · hypoparathyroidism · chronic kidney disease
chronic kidney disease · vitamin D deficiency · parathyroid gland disorder
Hypocalcemia
Tractability
Safety liabilities
Clinical trials
Trials of drugs that target this protein — reached indirectly through those drugs, so a trial listed here studies the drug, not the protein.
Show remaining trials (24)Hide
ClinicalTrials.gov via the drug-target graph.
Forefront confidence
Our own weighting of the evidence behind each disease association. Human genetics and clinical evidence count for most; literature co-mention counts for little, because two entities sharing an abstract is not evidence that one drives the other.
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 underlying per-type scores are shown above so the calculation can be checked.
What's happening now
Recent activity around this target, drawn from one canonical event stream. Every item is reached through 4 drugs that target this protein, so each event is news about that drug rather than about the protein directly.
- Research developmentStudy challenges a common belief about vitamin D and sunlight
- Research developmentStudy challenges a common belief about vitamin D and sunlight
- Label change
Label change: PARICALCITOL (NDA205917)
- Industry developmentScientists warn popular vitamin D supplement may have a “previously unknown” downside
- Industry developmentScientists discover strange link between vitamin D and pain
- Industry developmentVitamin D boosts breast cancer treatment success by 79%
- Industry developmentYour vitamin D levels in midlife could shape your brain decades later
- Industry developmentYour vitamin D levels in midlife could shape your brain decades later
- Industry developmentScientists tested vitamin D for COVID and found an unexpected long COVID clue
- New publicationRandomized trial of activated vitamin D for acute kidney injury prevention in critically ill patients.
- New publicationMolecular Insight into the Role of Vitamin D in Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases.
- New publicationPembrolizumab ± paricalcitol in metastatic pancreatic cancer postmaximal cytoreduction.
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.