chemistry

Upadacitinib

Upadacitinib is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Upadacitinib rather than just read about it. In short: Upadacitinib, sold under the brand name Rinvoq, is a medication used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, atopic dermatitis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, ankylosing spondylitis, and axial spondyloarthritis. Upadacitinib is a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor that works by blocking the action of enzymes called Janus kinases.

Key takeaways

Upadacitinib belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Upadacitinib to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Upadacitinib from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Upadacitinib, sold under the brand name Rinvoq, is a medication used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, atopic dermatitis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, ankylosing spondylitis, and axial spondyloarthritis. Upadacitinib is a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor that works by blocking the action of enzymes called Janus kinases. These enzymes are involved in setting up processes that lead to inflammation, and blocking their effect brings inflammation in the joints under control. Common side effects include upper respiratory tract infections (common cold, sinus infections), nausea, cough, and fever. Upadacitinib was approved for medical use in both the United States and the European Union in 2019.

Medical uses Upadacitinib is indicated for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, atopic dermatitis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, ankylosing spondylitis, and axial spondyloarthritis. Upadacitinib is indicated for the treatment of moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis in adults who have responded inadequately to, or who are intolerant to one or more disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Upadacitinib may be used as monotherapy or in combination with methotrexate or other nonbiologic DMARDs. Upadacitinib was approved in January 2022, by the FDA for treating adults and children twelve years of age and older with moderate to severe treatment refractory atopic dermatitis. Upadacitinib was approved in March 2022, by the FDA for treating adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis who did not respond to treatment with anti-TNF drugs (e.g. infliximab). Upadacitinib was approved in February 2023, by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease. In April 2023, upadacitinib was approved in the EU for the treatment of moderately to severely active Crohn's disease in adults. In May 2023, the FDA approved upadacitinib for the treatment of adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease who have had an inadequate response or intolerance to one or more TNF blockers.

Contraindications The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires a boxed warning for tofacitinib, baricitinib, and upadacitinib to include information about the risks of serious heart-related events, cancer, blood clots, and death. The drug is contraindicated in people with active tuberculosis and other severe infections, severe liver impairment (Child–Pugh score C), and during pregnancy.

Interactions Substances that strongly inhibit the liver enzyme CYP3A4, such as ketoconazole, itraconazole, or clarithromycin, increase upadacitinib concentrations in the body. In a study, ketoconazole increased its AUC by 75%. Conversely, substances that strongly induce CYP3A4 lower upadacitinib concentrations. For example, rifampicin reduced the AUC by 60% in a study. Upadacitinib seems to be a weak inducer of CYP3A4, as it lowers concentrations of other substrates of this enzyme (such as the midazolam AUC by 26%). It has no effect on substrates of CYP1A2, CYP2B6, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, or CYP2D6.

Side effects Common side effects include upper respiratory tract infections such as common cold and sinus infections, nausea, cough, and fever.

Pharmacology

Mechanism of action The Janus kinases (JAKs) are a family of cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases whose function is to transduce cytokine-mediated signals via the JAK-STAT pathway. There are four JAK subtypes, each of which has overlapping receptor responsibilities. Inhibitors of this enzyme family (jakinibs) have shown efficacy in treating certain inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. However, the first generation of these drugs, tofacitinib and ruxolitinib, lacked subtype selectivity, affecting JAK1/JAK3 and JAK1/JAK2 respectively. This has led to dose-limiting side effects in this otherwise promising class of drugs. Upadacitinib is a second generation Janus kinase inhibitor that is selective for the JAK1 subtype of this enzyme over the JAK2 (74-fold), JAK3 (58-fold) and tyrosine kinase 2 subtypes.

Pharmacokinetics After oral intake, upadacitinib reaches highest concentrations in the blood plasma after two to four hours. A fatty meal has no clinically relevant effect on its resorption. Steady-state conditions are reached after four days; accumulation is minimal. There is no significant first pass effect. When in the bloodstream, 52% of the substance are bound to plasma proteins. It is mainly metabolized by CYP3A4, and possibly to a minor extent by CYP2D6. The most important pathway consists of oxidation to a carboxylic acid and subsequent glucuronidation, yielding a metabolite called M4. However, 79% of the drug circulates in the form of upadacitinib itself, and only 13% as M4. Other metabolites are only present in small fractions. None are pharmacologically active. The drug is excreted mainly as the original substance, of which 38% are found in the feces and 24% in the urine. The mean terminal half-life is 9 to 14 hours.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Upadacitinib

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Upadacitinib claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Upadacitinib before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Upadacitinib ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Upadacitinib

In research: Upadacitinib appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Upadacitinib in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Upadacitinib is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Anti-inflammatory agents, Drugs developed by AbbVie, Non-receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Upadacitinib outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Upadacitinib” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Upadacitinib in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Upadacitinib means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Upadacitinib out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Upadacitinib in simple terms?

Why does Upadacitinib matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Upadacitinib?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Upadacitinib.