<p>The orexin receptors are a pair of newly discovered G-protein coupled receptors which are activated by the neuropeptides orexins and play a role in sleep/vigilance, apetite/metabolism and neuroendocrine regulation. On a cellular level receptor activation results in, to name but a few effects, elevation of intracellular calcium and depolarisation. All cellular effects display an uncommon dependence of extracellular Ca<sup>2+</sup>, which has been shown to be due to influx of extracellular Ca<sup>2+</sup> as a primary response.</p><p>Here we provide evidence for a high specificity of orexin receptors for orexin peptides over other neuropeptides, despite previous reports of the opposite. Other neuropeptides could neither displace orexin-A from orexin receptors, nor affect functional responses induced by orexin peptides via orexin receptors. In an effort to assess the determinants of orexin-A binding to orexin receptors orexin-A was truncated/mutated and tested for functional responses. It was found that alterations in the orexin-A sequence had more prominent effects on the activation of OX<sub>1</sub> than on OX<sub>2</sub> receptors.</p><p>When the signaling of orexin receptors was investigated in neuron-like cells it was found that they couple to Ca<sup>2+</sup>-metabolism and PLC activation in a manner similar to that in non-neuronal cells. Investigations of OX<sub>1</sub> receptor regulation of adenylyl cyclases showed orexin receptors to have a dual effect on the production of cAMP. A high-affinity inhibitory coupling and a low-affinity stimulatory coupling. The stimulatory coupling was determined to consist of two components, a low potency G<sub>S</sub>-coupling and a high-potency PKC coupling.</p><p>In conclusion we have shown that orexin receptors are preferentially activated by orexin peptides and the receptors couple to Ca<sup>2+</sup>-metabolism in a similar way in different contexts. Orexin receptors couple to both the phospholipase C and the adenylyl cyclase pathway and to some extent these pathways converge in the production of cAMP.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:uu-4570 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Holmqvist, Tomas |
| Publisher | Uppsala University, Physiology, Uppsala : Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary, text |
| Relation | Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine, 0282-7476 ; 1376 |
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