title: Mu opioid receptors in pain management.
abstract: Most of the potent analgesics currently in use act through the mu opioid receptor. Although they are classified as mu opioids, clinical experience suggests differences among them. The relative potencies of the agents can vary from patient to patient, as well as the side-effect profiles. These observations, coupled with pharmacological approaches in preclinical models, led to the suggestion of multiple subtypes of mu receptors. The explosion in molecular biology has led to the identification of a single gene encoding mu opioid receptors. It now appears that this gene undergoes extensive splicing, in which a single gene can generate multiple proteins. Evidence now suggests that these splice variants may help explain the clinical variability in responses among patients.
authors: Department of Neurology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, NY 10065, USA. pasterng@mskcc.org
authors: Gavril
authors: G
authors: Pasternak
authors: Ying-Xian
authors: YX
authors: Pan
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy*; D017450:Receptors, Opioid, mu / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D017450:Receptors, Opioid, mu