Genetic variation in beta-adrenergic receptors and their relationship to susceptibility for asthma and therapeutic response.
Our early work focused on quantitative variation in traits related to beta-adrenergic signaling: lymphocyte levels of cAMP and the binding properties of the beta-adrenergic receptor. We confirmed the work of others that the major histocompatibility locus had an effect on cAMP levels in mice and in man. The latter result was presumably due to the influence of beta-adrenergic receptors, since it was the isoproterenol-stimulated lymphocyte cAMP level that was studied. We went on to directly study beta-adrenergic receptor levels in mouse hepatic plasma membranes using dihydroalprenolol binding. We discovered a strain variation, apparently controlled by a single locus, which determined a magnesium influence on measurable levels of dihydroalprenolol binding. More recently, our group's work has focused on the human single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the human beta2-adrenergic receptor. We found that variation at amino acid position 16 had a very marked effect on the response of subjects to albuterol. Similar trends were observed for asthmatic and nonasthmatic children, and the results were independent of baseline lung function. Our results, and those of other groups relating SNPs in the beta-adrenergic receptor to a number of responses, mostly related to asthma, are reviewed in this article.
Angel Charity for Children--Wings for Genetic Research, Steele Memorial Children's Research, Department of Pediatrics and Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, USA. erickson@peds.arizona.edu
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D000818:Animals; D001249:Asthma / Q000235:genetics*; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D010641:Phenotype; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011943:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta / Q000235:genetics*
D011943:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta