Sodium dichloroacetate — most commonly referred to as DCA — is a small, water-soluble compound that has attracted sustained scientific attention for over five decades. Originally studied in the 1960s for its role in treating rare metabolic disorders in children, DCA has since become one of the most researched repurposed compounds in modern biology.

DCA is the sodium salt of dichloroacetic acid. Its chemical formula is Cl₂CHCOONa, and its CAS number is 2156-56-1. It appears as a white crystalline powder, dissolves readily in water, and is stable at room temperature when stored away from moisture.

Every cell in your body generates energy by breaking down glucose through glycolysis. The end product is pyruvate. Under normal conditions, pyruvate enters the mitochondria and is converted into acetyl-CoA — which enters the Krebs cycle to produce ATP. The enzyme pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) controls this conversion, but can be switched off by pyruvate dehydrogenase kinases (PDKs). DCA inhibits PDKs, reactivating PDH and pushing cells back toward aerobic mitochondrial metabolism.

This matters because in cancer cells, the Warburg effect dramatically upregulates anaerobic glycolysis even in the presence of oxygen. In mitochondrial disorders, PDH function is impaired. In chronic fatigue research, DCA’s effect on the lactate-to-pyruvate ratio has attracted growing interest.

DCA’s medical history begins in the 1970s, when researchers began investigating it for lactic acidosis. The modern wave of interest began in 2007 with a landmark paper from Dr. Evangelos Michelakis at the University of Alberta demonstrating DCA caused regression of human lung cancer tumours in vitro and in animal models.

This article is for informational and educational purposes only. AuraDCA products are intended for research use only.