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A Short History of the Drug Receptor ConceptQuantitative Arguments for the Existence of Drug Receptors and the Development of the Receptor Occupancy Theory, c. 1910–60

A Short History of the Drug Receptor Concept: Quantitative Arguments for the Existence of Drug... [On the basis of animal experiments with antagonistic drugs and with suprarenal extract (‘adrenalin’), in 1905 J. N. Langley proposed the existence of specific ‘receptive substances’ in cells. When drugs or hormones bound chemically to these substances, the metabolism of the ‘chief substance’ of the cell would be influenced, and thus the cell’s function (for example, secretion in gland cells, contraction in muscle cells) would be changed. In this manner, Langley suggested, adrenalin contracted the smooth muscle of blood vessels, nicotine led to contraction of skeletal muscles and curare to their relaxation, pilocarpine stimulated secretion of saliva and atropine stopped this secretion (see Chapter 2 above). Paul Ehrlich, who had developed his ‘side-chain’ or ‘receptor’ theory in the study of toxin binding to cells and antitoxin (antibody) production a few years earlier, soon adopted Langley’s view, introducing, in 1907, the term ‘chemoreceptors’ for those specific constituents of the cell that were able to bind certain chemical substances. Ehrlich’s chemotherapeutic research on trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and syphilis rested on the assumption that certain drugs, such as dyes and arsenical compounds, were fixed selectively to the pathogenic microorganisms (leading to their death), while they left the host’s body cells largely unharmed (see Chapter 1 above).] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Short History of the Drug Receptor ConceptQuantitative Arguments for the Existence of Drug Receptors and the Development of the Receptor Occupancy Theory, c. 1910–60

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Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2009
ISBN
978-1-349-36377-3
Pages
107 –124
DOI
10.1057/9780230583740_6
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[On the basis of animal experiments with antagonistic drugs and with suprarenal extract (‘adrenalin’), in 1905 J. N. Langley proposed the existence of specific ‘receptive substances’ in cells. When drugs or hormones bound chemically to these substances, the metabolism of the ‘chief substance’ of the cell would be influenced, and thus the cell’s function (for example, secretion in gland cells, contraction in muscle cells) would be changed. In this manner, Langley suggested, adrenalin contracted the smooth muscle of blood vessels, nicotine led to contraction of skeletal muscles and curare to their relaxation, pilocarpine stimulated secretion of saliva and atropine stopped this secretion (see Chapter 2 above). Paul Ehrlich, who had developed his ‘side-chain’ or ‘receptor’ theory in the study of toxin binding to cells and antitoxin (antibody) production a few years earlier, soon adopted Langley’s view, introducing, in 1907, the term ‘chemoreceptors’ for those specific constituents of the cell that were able to bind certain chemical substances. Ehrlich’s chemotherapeutic research on trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and syphilis rested on the assumption that certain drugs, such as dyes and arsenical compounds, were fixed selectively to the pathogenic microorganisms (leading to their death), while they left the host’s body cells largely unharmed (see Chapter 1 above).]

Published: Sep 25, 2015

Keywords: Heart Cell; Drug Receptor; Frog Heart; Receptor Theory; General Pharmacology

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