Imidazole receptors. 22-24 July 1998, Bonn, Germany

This two-day symposium was the third international meeting on imidazoline receptors and an official satellite of the XIIIth International Congress of Pharmacology, held the following week in Munich. The meeting was very well-organized by the local hosts, Manfred Gothert and Gert Molderings (Pharmacology Department, Bonn University, Germany). With approximately 100 participants from 13 countries, representing Europe, North and South America, and Australia, the symposium was slightly smaller than the 1994 meeting in New York, but similar in size to the 1992 inaugural meeting in Paris. What stood out from this meeting was the considerable maturation in the confidence that imidazoline-binding sites are functional receptors. Also, the therapeutic implications have dramatically diversified in the last four years. It is now thought that these receptors play a role in hypertension, pancreatic function, cell proliferation, regulation of body fat, neuroprotection, inflammation and some psychiatric disorders, such as depression. This may partly explain the reluctance to further classify imidazoline subtypes, while the previous I1 and I2 classification is now clearly inadequate to satisfy the four to five subtypes that were described. The format of the meeting was similar to those held previously with 27 invited state of the art presentations divided into seven sessions covering topics from molecular and cellular biology, endogenous ligands, receptor identification and classification through functional studies and pathophysiology and their relevance. Over 40 submitted posters were displayed for the entire meeting and a new addition to the format was an evening set aside for three concurrent poster discussion sessions, which provided each participant with the opportunity to present work to a wider audience. This review will focus on the major developments presented at the symposium following the thematic outline of the program.