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Updated: Mar 2, 2026

Real-time In Vitro Monitoring of Odorant Receptor Activation by an Odorant in the Vapor Phase
Published on: April 23, 2019
Potential therapeutic effects of odorants through their ectopic receptors in pigmented cells
Barbara Pavan1, Antonio Capuzzo1, Alessandro Dalpiaz2
1Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
Abstract:
Several olfactory receptors (ORs) have been characterized outside the olfactory neuroepithelium in neuronal and non-neuronal tissues, where they were implicated in the recognition of diverse chemical signals. ORs have been found to regulate melanogenesis in skin melanocytes, and OR expression has been found in the human brain nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons, where production of melanin occurs as neuromelanin and can change with age; OR expression is downregulated in Parkinson's disease. Therefore, we propose several odorants as new functional ligands to ORs expressed in non-olfactory pigmented cells as dopaminergic neurons and melanocytes, where, by acting on cAMP-induced melanin production, they could help to counteract melanogenic and neurodegenerative dysfunctions, including melanoma and Parkinson's disease.
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09:11Live-cell Measurement of Odorant Receptor Activation Using a Real-time cAMP Assay
Published on: October 2, 2017
10:16Perforated Patch-clamp Recording of Mouse Olfactory Sensory Neurons in Intact Neuroepithelium: Functional Analysis of Neurons Expressing an Identified Odorant Receptor
Published on: July 13, 2015
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