Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 22, Issue 7, 2015

The publication of the first crystal structures of the zebrafish P2X4 receptor in 2009 was a pivotal moment; for the first time, researchers were able to interpret their experimental data in a structural context. Several research groups immediately set about using the data to make molecular models of the betterunderstood mammalian P2X receptors, in order to design and interpret the results of new, more focused structure- Read More

P2X receptors constitute a seven-member family (P2X1-7) of extracellular ATP-gated cation channels of widespread expression. Because P2X receptors have been implicated in neurological, inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases, they constitute promising drug targets. Since the first P2X cDNA sequences became available in 1994, numerous site-directed mutagenesis studies have been conducted to disclose key sites Read More

Potent actions of ATP in the central nervous system (CNS) were reported in the late 1940’s, but cloning and characterisation of receptors for purines and pyrimidines did not take place until the early 1990’s, which identified seven P2X ion channel receptor subtypes, three of which form the cation channel as homomultimers or heteromultimers. P2X receptor subtypes are widely expressed in the CNS and their distribution is d Read More

Pain represents a very large social and clinical problem since the current treatment provides insufficient pain relief. Plasticity of pain receptors together with sensitisation of sensory neurons, and the role of soluble mediators released from non-neuronal cells render difficult to understand the spatial and temporal scale of pain development, neuronal responses and disease progression. In pathological conditions, ATP is one of t Read More

This review considers the expression and roles of P2X receptors in the cardiovascular system in health and disease and their potential as therapeutic targets. P2X receptors are ligand gated ion channels which are activated by the endogenous ligand ATP. They are formed from the assembly of three P2X subunit proteins from the complement of seven (P2X1-7), which can associate to form homomeric or heteromeri Read More

Until recently, P2X receptors have not received much attention in the context of immunology and inflammation. While this is justified to a certain extent for P2X1, P2X2, P2X3, P2X5 and P2X6, which still await identification of a convincing role in the pathophysiology of immune cells, it is clearly not any more the case for P2X4 and even more so for P2X7, a molecule that has achieved the status of an essential, nonredundant, im Read More

Tumor microenvironment composition strongly conditions cancer growth and progression, acting not only at cancer itself but also modifying its interactions with immune, endothelial and nervous cells. Extracellular ATP and its receptors recently gained increasing attention in the oncological field. ATP accumulates in cancer milieu through spontaneous release, tumor necrosis or chemotherapy exerting a trophic activity on ca Read More

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder characterized by elevation of glucose levels in the blood that develops in humans as a result of genetic predisposition and environmental factors. Unbalanced glycemic control has been associated with the development of progressive and debilitating complications that dramatically affect the quality of life and life expectancy of people with diabetes. The purinergic system represents a Read More

Bone is a highly dynamic organ, being constantly modeled and remodeled in order to adapt to the changing need throughout life. Bone turnover involves the coordinated actions of bone formation and bone degradation. Over the past decade great effort has been put into the examination of how P2X receptors regulate bone metabolism and especially for the P2X7 receptor an impressive amount of evidence has now docume Read More

In this work, we have highlighted data reported in the literature trying to draw a complete picture of the structures and biological activity of agonists and orthosteric antagonists of P2X receptors. Actually, only few P2X receptor agonists have been found and most of them are derived from modification of the natural ligand ATP and they are P2X receptor subtype unselective. In particular, BzATP (9) is one of the most po Read More

P2X receptors are trimeric ligand-gated ion channels whose potential as novel drug targets for a number of diseases has been recognized. They are mainly involved in inflammatory processes, including neuroinflammation, and pain sensation. The orthosteric binding site is lined by basic amino acid residues that bind the negatively charged agonist ATP. Therefore it is not easy to develop orthosteric ligands that possess dr Read More