Thoughts and studies on purification of the angiotensin II receptor

The angiotensin receptor is the only macromolecular component of the renin-angiotensin system which has not yet been purified and characterized in the isolated state. A purified preparation could be useful for identifying the amino acid residues it preferentially recognizes in various positions of defined peptide ligands, and for elucidating the proximate molecular mechanism by which the binding event is transduced into a cellular response. Such knowledge should expedite the development of receptor antagonists which might be more physiologically specific than other inhibitors of the system. This paper elaborates on these thoughts, and describes some recent progress in purification of the rabbit hepatic receptor.