Receptor mechanisms: principles of agonism. 23-25 July 1998, Merano, Italy

This conference was the first of a series of biannual meetings covering important aspects of receptor behavior and was held as a satellite to the IUPHAR Congress in Munich. Among its aims were the definition and mechanisms of efficacy at structurally distinct receptors, receptor dynamics (receptor and agonist trafficking), agonist-induced states and models of receptor activation. Agonist influence on receptor signaling, receptor promiscuity in signal transduction, properties of agonists and the concept of inverse agonism were also considered. In addition, mechanisms of receptor desensitization and sensitization, receptor internalization, determination of agonist-binding sites, point mutation studies and transduction in cell-cell interactions were examined. Though this meeting was targeted mainly at scientists dealing with membrane receptors, Patrick Humphrey (Glaxo Institute of Applied Pharmacology, Cambridge, UK) who chaired the first session, described four receptor classes: ion channels; G protein-coupled receptors; enzyme-associated receptors; and transcriptional regulatory receptors. One of the presentations also dealt with the structure-function relationship of nuclear receptors.