Somatostatin receptors. Reisine, Terry. Department of Pharmacology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104. Tele. No. 215-898-1750 and Fax. No. 215-573-2236.
APStracts 2:0181G, 1995.
Somatostatin induces its biological actions by activating a family of receptor subtypes. The recent cloning of five somatostatin receptor subtypes has lead to the development of subtype selective agonists. These compounds are revealing distinct functions of the individual receptor subtypes. Mutagenesis studies have revealed domains of several of the receptors involved in specific recognition of somatostatin analogs. Molecular modeling of both these ligand binding domains and the constrained somatostatin analogs that they interact with may lead to the development of non-peptide somatostatin drugs which could be useful in the treatment of tumors and various metabolic, gastrointestinal and central nervous system disorders.

Received 29 March 1995; accepted in final form 18 August 1995.
APS Manuscript Number G379-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Gastrointest. Liver
Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 23 September 1995.