title: Opioid receptors and their interacting proteins.
abstract: The opioid receptors are among the most highly studied members of the family of G protein-coupled receptors. As for many other members of this family, recent studies have indicated that they do not exist in isolation but are able to interact with a substantial range of other polypeptides. Such interactions can alter the effectiveness of agonist-mediated cell signalling, determine the signals generated, alter the intracellular trafficking routes of the receptors and potentially determine cellular localization by providing a scaffold to link the receptors to the cytoskeletal network. Although virtually all studies on these interactions to date have employed expression into simple heterologous cell lines, the availability of knock-out mouse lines and the capacity to knock-down levels of opioid receptor-interacting proteins using techniques such as siRNA suggest that information on the functional consequences of such protein-protein interactions in a physiological setting will soon be forthcoming.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Pharmacology Group, Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland, UK. g.milligan@bio.gla.ac.uk
authors.forename: Graeme
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Milligan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism; D004705:Endocytosis / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000639:trends; D009420:Nervous System / Q000378:metabolism*; D018847:Opioid Peptides / Q000378:metabolism*; D021381:Protein Transport / Q000502:physiology; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011957:Receptors, Opioid / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D018847:Opioid Peptides; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled; D011957:Receptors, Opioid