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Updated: Jan 6, 2026

Quantifying Agonist Activity at G Protein-coupled Receptors
Published on: December 26, 2011
The nature of efficacy at G protein-coupled receptors
Peishen Zhao1, Sebastian G B Furness1
1Drug Discovery Biology, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Pharmacology, Monash University, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia.
Abstract:
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) participate in many pathophysiological processes as well as almost all aspects of normal physiology. They are present at the surface of all cell types making them amenable and attractive targets for pharmaceutical therapeutics. GPCRs possess complex pharmacology with the ability to be turned on to various extents, have their constitutive activity suppressed and even switch between signaling pathways to which they couple. Underlying this complex pharmacology is GPCR signaling efficacy, and differences in efficacy promoted by alternative ligands and in different tissues is of great interest to biology in general and also the pharmaceutical industry. In this review we hope to discuss what the molecular foundations of efficacy are and whether a new approach utilizing a rate-dependent model may provide new insights into this phenomenon.
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