ephedrine   Click here for help

GtoPdb Ligand ID: 556

Synonyms: Emerphed® (ephedrine sulfate injection)
Approved drug
ephedrine is an approved drug (FDA (2020))
Compound class: Synthetic organic
Comment: Ephedrine is a sympathomimetic amine, hypothesised to act principally as a β-adrenoceptor agonist. Natural ephedrine is used in Chinese traditional medicine as a treatment for asthma and bronchitis.
Chemically, ephedirine can exist as four stereoisomers: the (1R,2S) and (1S,2R) pair of enantiomers is known as ephedrine ( with the INN racephedrine aknowledging the racemic mixture), while (1R,2R) and (1S,2S) pair is known as pseudoephedrine. The (1R,2S) isomer is also named (-)-ephedrine or D-ephedrine. The (1S,2S) isomer being (+)-ephedrine or L-ephedrine. Pseudoephedrine is much less active than ephedrine.
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Ligand Activity Visualisation Charts

These 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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View interactive charts of activity data across species
2D Structure
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2D Structure

An image of the ligand's 2D structure. For small molecules with SMILES these are drawn using the NCI/CADD Chemical Identifier Resolver. Click on the image to access the chemical structure search tool with the ligand pre-loaded in the structure editor. For other types of ligands, e.g. longer nucleotides and peptides, a manually drawn representation of the molecule may be provided.

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Physico-chemical Properties
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Physico-chemical Properties

Calculated molecular properties are available for small molecules and natural products (not peptides). Properties were generated using the CDK toolkit. All properties were selected to enable the prediction of the Lipinski Rule-of-Five profile or ‘druglikeness’ for each ligand. For more info on each category see the help pages.

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Hydrogen bond acceptors 2
Hydrogen bond donors 2
Rotatable bonds 3
Topological polar surface area 32.26
Molecular weight 165.12
XLogP 1.39
No. Lipinski's rules broken 0
SMILES / InChI / InChIKey
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SMILES / InChI / InChIKey

SMILES (Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry Specification) A specification for unambiguously describing the structure of chemical molecules using short ASCII strings. Canonical SMILES specify a unique representation of the 2D structure without chiral or isotopic specifications. Isomeric SMILES include chiral specification and isotopes.

Standard InChI (IUPAC International Chemical Identifier) and InChIKey InChI is a non-proprietary, standard, textual identifier for chemical substances designed to facilitate linking of information and database searching. An InChIKey is a simplified version of a full InChI, designed for easier web searching.

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Canonical SMILES CNC(C(c1ccccc1)O)C
Isomeric SMILES CN[C@H]([C@@H](c1ccccc1)O)C
InChI InChI=1S/C10H15NO/c1-8(11-2)10(12)9-6-4-3-5-7-9/h3-8,10-12H,1-2H3/t8-,10-/m0/s1
InChI Key KWGRBVOPPLSCSI-WPRPVWTQSA-N
No information available.
Summary of Clinical Use Click here for help
Ephedrine may be used for temporary relief of shortness of breath, chest tightness, and wheezing due to bronchial asthma. Stimulatory effects in the central nervous system have indicated used of ephedrine in the treatment of narcolepsy and depression and this drug is often used as an illicit stimulant and appetite suppressant. In April 2020, the FDA approved a pre-mixed, ready-to-use formulation of ephedrine sulphate that can be administered by Injection to treat hypotension encountered during anesthesia. Ephedrine has no Europe-wide marketing approval.
Mechanism Of Action and Pharmacodynamic Effects Click here for help
Ephedrine is a decongestant and bronchodilator which gives symptomatic relief by reducing swelling and causing constriction of blood vessels in the nasal passages, as well as relaxing the lung airways. The mechanism of action in central nervous system is complex, and best described in the DrugBank link on the Summary tab for this ligand.