Cytidine

Category: nucleoside

Aliases: Cytosine riboside

Pharmacological Mechanism

Precursor to CTP → CDP-choline / CDP-ethanolamine (Kennedy pathway for phospholipid synthesis). Also UTP via CTP synthase (with glutamine). Uridine + cytidine are the two pyrimidine 'salvage' nucleosides.

Target Organ Systems

• nervous

Interactions

• CDP-choline (synergistic): CDP-choline hydrolyses to cytidine + choline in the gut; cytidine supplementation is an upstream route.

Pathways It Modulates

• Nucleoside / nucleotide supplementation (substrate) — CMP pool + DNA/RNA precursor

Chemical Identifiers

• PubChem CID: 6175
• Formula: C9H13N3O5
• Molecular weight: 243.22 g/mol
• InChIKey: UHDGCWIWMRVCDJ-XVFCMESISA-N
• SMILES: C1=CN(C(=O)N=C1N)[C@H]2[C@@H]([C@@H]([C@H](O2)CO)O)O