Clinical disorders of extracellular calcium-sensing and the molecular biology of the calcium-sensing receptor.

The calcium-sensing receptor is a G protein-coupled receptor that has a key role in extracellular calcium homeostasis, regulating the secretion of parathyroid hormone and the reabsorption of urinary calcium appropriate to the prevailing calcaemic environment. Molecular abnormalities of the calcium-sensing receptor are responsible for three clinical disorders, familial benign hypocalciuric hypercalcaemia, neonatal severe hyperparathyroidism and autosomal dominant hypocalcaemia with hypercalciuria. In the future, therapeutic compounds that modulate calcium-sensing receptor function may have a role in the medical management of hyperparathyroidism (calcimimetic drugs) and osteoporosis (calcilytic drugs).