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The ligand that came from within
1Department of Pharmacology, 360 MSRII, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-4625, USA. piomelli@uci.edu
Trends in Pharmacological Sciences
|February 13, 2001
Abstract:
Recent evidence suggests that the endogenous activators of neuronal vanilloid (capsaicin) receptors should be sought inside, not outside, the neuron. 12-Lipoxygenase metabolites of arachidonic acid, produced by pain-inducing mediators such as bradykinin, might trigger vanilloid receptor activation by interacting with an intracellular site on the receptor. Are these lipid-like second messengers the long-sought endogenous vanilloids?