Insights into Receptor Function and New Drug Development Targets

We are now on the verge of viewing effector molecules and other regulatory sites as therapeutic targets for the amelioration of human and animal disease. The recognition, for example, that mutant proteins are frequently misrouted molecules, rather than functionally defective ones, changes our approach to "inborn errors of metabolism" and offers new approaches for pharmacological discovery, based on rescue of receptors, ion channels and enzymes with pharmacoperones. Ion channels, regulators of G-protein signaling and enzymes engaged in regulation, now present opportunities for drug development.

The state of our art also benefits by the availability of superior tools that allow measurement of interactions and afford unprecedented insight into the biomolecular interactions that present novel approaches to drug design.

• Cannabinoid
• G protein-coupled receptors
• G proteins
• RGS proteins
• TRPC channels
• endogenous cannabinoid system
• glycoprotein hormone receptors
• hormone receptors
• ion channels
• lipolysis
• melanocortin receptors
• metabotropic glutamate receptors
• receptor tyrosine kinases

• Divisions of Neuroscience and Reproductive Biology, Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology and Cell and Developmental Biology, Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health and Science University, Beaverton, USA

  Michael Conn

• Institut Necker, Paris, France

  Claude Kordon

• Pour la Recherche Thérapeutique, Fondation IPSEN, Paris Cedex 16, France

  Yves Christen

Policies and ethics