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Updated: Feb 3, 2026

Kinetic Screening of Nuclease Activity using Nucleic Acid Probes
Published on: November 1, 2019
A facile synthesis of ursodeoxycholic acid and obeticholic acid from cholic acid
Xiao-Long He1, Li-Ting Wang1, Xiang-Zhong Gu2
1Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics and New Drug Development, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China.
Abstract:
A novel synthetic route of producing ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) and obeticholic acid (OCA) was developed through multiple reactions from cheap and readily-available cholic acid. The reaction conditions of the key elimination reaction of mesylate ester group were also investigated and optimized, including solvent, base and reaction temperature. In the straightforward synthetic route for preparation of UDCA and OCA, most of the reaction steps have high conversions with average yields of 94% and 92%, and overall yield up to 65% (7 steps) and 36% (11 steps) from cholic acid, respectively. This promising route offers economical and efficient strategies for potential large-scale production of UDCA and OCA.
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