title: Molecular structure of P2X receptors.
abstract: P2X receptors are ligand-gated ion channels that transduce many of the physiological effects of extracellular ATP. There has been a dramatic increase in awareness of these receptors over the past 5 or so years, in great part due to their molecular cloning and characterization. The availability of cDNA clones for the various subunits has led to rapid progress in identifying their tissue-specific expression, resulting in new ideas concerning the functional roles these receptors might play in physiological and pathophysiological processes. In addition, molecular approaches have yielded much information regarding the structure and function of the receptor proteins themselves. In this review we seek to review recent findings concerning the molecular determinants of receptor-channel function, with particular focus on ligand binding and gating, ion selectivity, and subunit assembly.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacological and Physiological Science, St Louis University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri 63104, USA.
authors.forename: Terrance M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Egan
authors.forename: Jane A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.forename: Mark M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Voigt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D006801:Humans; D015640:Ion Channel Gating; D008024:Ligands; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D021122:Protein Subunits / Q000737:chemistry; D018048:Receptors, Purinergic P2 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D058469:Receptors, Purinergic P2X
chemical_list: D008024:Ligands; D021122:Protein Subunits; D018048:Receptors, Purinergic P2; D058469:Receptors, Purinergic P2X