title: International union of pharmacology. XXIV. Current status of the nomenclature and properties of P2X receptors and their subunits.
abstract: ATP acts as a humoral mediator to control cell function extracellularly. The receptors that mediate the actions of ATP belong to two classes, the metabotropic P2Y receptors and the transmitter-gated, ion channel P2X receptors. This review describes the structure, distribution, function, and ligand recognition characteristics of P2X receptors, which comprise seven distinct subunits that can function as both homo- and hetero- polymers. The pharmacology of P2X receptors is complicated by marked differences between species orthologues. The current nomenclature is based largely on recombinant receptor studies and detailed knowledge of endogenous P2X receptors in native tissues is limited because of lack of good selective agonists and antagonists for each receptor type.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biology 156-29, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA. bsk@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Khakh
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Burnstock
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kennedy
authors.forename: B F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: North
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Séguéla
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Voigt
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Humphrey
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004594:Electrophysiology; D006801:Humans; D018048:Receptors, Purinergic P2 / Q000145:classification* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D009626:Terminology as Topic
chemical_list: D018048:Receptors, Purinergic P2