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Anti-inflammatory Silent Agonists
Nicole A Horenstein1, Roger L Papke2
1Department of Chemistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611-7200, United States.
Abstract:
The traditional view of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) is that they strictly exert their functions via their well-known ion channel activity. With the identification of the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway and the critical involvement of the α7 nAChR, an alternate modality of function has emerged for the receptor involving metabotropic-like activity. The new emerging pharmacology for the receptor includes ligands termed silent agonists, which exert little or no ionotropic activity, yet are capable of modulating cellular inflammatory responses.
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