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Tachykinin receptors as drug targets for motility disorders
Willemijntje A Hoogerwerf1, Sushil K Sarna
1Department of Internal Medicine, Enteric Neuromuscular Disorders and Visceral Pain Center, Division of Gastroenterology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-1064, USA.
Abstract:
The tachykinins and their receptors are strategically distributed within the gut wall, spinal cord, and central nervous system to be potential targets of therapeutic agents for gastrointestinal motility disorders. However, the development of effective tachykinin receptor agonists or antagonists to treat these disorders has had very limited success so far. This is, in part, due to the complex and multilevel of regulation of gastrointestinal motility function and the challenges faced in targeting the specific type of gut contraction to normalize function in disease state.
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