Agonist-selective actions of opioids on the desensitization of -opioid receptors (MORs) have been well characterized, but few if any studies have examined agonist-dependent recovery from desensitization. The outward potassium current induced by several opioids was studied using whole-cell voltage-clamp recordings in locus ceruleus neurons. A brief application of the irreversible opioid antagoni...

The β(2)-adrenergic receptor (β(2)AR) agonists with reduced tachyphylaxis may offer new therapeutic agents with improved tolerance profile. However, receptor desensitization assays are often inferred at the single signaling molecule level, thus ligand-directed desensitization is poorly understood. Here we report a label-free biosensor whole cell assay with microfluidics to determine ligand-dire...

Capsaicin (Cap) is a pungent extract of the Capsicum pepper family, which activates nociceptive primary sensory neurons. Inward current and membrane potential responses of cultured neonatal rat dorsal root ganglion neurons to capsaicin were examined using whole-cell and perforated patch recording methods. The responses exhibited strong desensitization operationally classified as acute (diminish...

BACKGROUND The majority of patients with cholinergic urticaria presents with strong hypersensitivity to autologous sweat. Patients with severe cholinergic urticaria are frequently resistant to H(1) antagonists which are used in conventional therapies for various types of urticaria. It has been reported that desensitization using partially purified sweat antigen was effective in a patient with c...

Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) coupled to phosphoinositide hydrolysis desensitize in response to prolonged or repeated agonist exposure, and evidence suggests that this involves activation of protein kinase C (PKC). The present studies were undertaken to determine if cloned mGluR5 undergoes similar PKC-mediated desensitization and to investigate the molecular mechanism underlying PKC...

The effect of specific competitive inhibitors of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase on thyrotropin (TSH) desensitization in human thyroid cell monolayers was examined. Thyroid cells were preincubated with o r without 60 milliunits/ml of TSH for 16 h at 37 “C in histidinefree medium supplemented with either 2 m~ histidinol or 2 mM histidine (control medium). All cells were then exposed to TSH for 30 min ...

Recent studies have demonstrated that in vivo administration of 1-deamino-8-D-arginine-vasopressin, an analog of arginine-8-vasopressin, induces homologous desensitization to vasopressin in the thick ascending limb of the loop of Henle. Desensitization has been documented by a decreased physiological response to vasopressin in vivo and by a reduced cAMP accumulation in the cortical thick ascend...

Mu-opioid receptors (MORs) activate G-protein coupled inwardly rectifying potassium (GIRK) channels. The peptide agonist [D-Ala(2), NMe-Phe(4), Gly(5)-ol]enkephalin (DAMGO), but not the alkaloid morphine (MS), leads to acute desensitization of this response. Furthermore, DAMGO, as opposed to MS, triggers rapid internalization of MORs. Given this dichotomy, we probed the relationship between rec...

Ionotropic glutamate receptors from the AMPA and kainate subfamilies share many functional and structural features, but it is unclear whether this similarity extends to the molecular mechanisms underlying receptor desensitization. The current model for desensitization in AMPA receptors involves the rearrangement of dimers formed between subunit agonist binding domains. Key evidence for this has...

It is hypothesized that desensitization of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) induced by chronic exposure to nicotine initiates upregulation of nAChR number. To test this hypothesis directly, oocytes expressing alpha4beta2 receptors were chronically incubated (24-48 hr) in nicotine, and the resulting changes in specific [3H]nicotine binding to surface receptors on intact oocyte...