A Chinese Perspective on Receptors and Receptor Regulation.

A receptor is a protein molecule that receives chemical signals from outside a cell, which enables the cell to respond to the signal molecule. Receptors mediate numerous important physiologic effects upon binding extracellular agonists. However, sustained activation of the receptor may lead to pathologic effects. Cells can regulate the number and function of receptors to alter their sensitivity to different molecules by a feedback mechanism, such as change in the receptor conformation, uncoupling of the receptor effector molecules, receptor sequestration, etc. In this special issue, some Chinese scientists were invited to contribute impactful discoveries and insightful reviews in the field of molecular pharmacology, especially receptor and receptor regulation.