Analyzing radioligand binding data.

Radioligand binding experiments are easy to perform, and provide useful data in many fields. They can be used to study receptor regulation, discover new drugs by screening for compounds that compete with high affinity for radioligand binding to a particular receptor, investigate receptor localization in different organs or regions using autoradiography, categorize receptor subtypes, and probe mechanisms of receptor signaling, via measurements of agonist binding and its regulation by ions, nucleotides, and other allosteric modulators. This unit reviews the theory of receptor binding and explains how to analyze experimental data. Since binding data are usually best analyzed using nonlinear regression, this unit also explains the principles of curve fitting with nonlinear regression.