TY - JOUR T1 - Recent Developments in the Study of Opioid Receptors JF - Molecular Pharmacology JO - Mol Pharmacol DO - 10.1124/mol.112.083279 SP - mol.112.083279 AU - Brian M Cox Y1 - 2012/12/18 UR - http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/early/2012/12/18/mol.112.083279.abstract N2 - It is now about forty years since Avram Goldstein proposed the use of the stereo-selectivity of opioid receptors to identify their receptors in neural membranes. This year the crystal structures of the four members of the opioid receptor family were reported, providing a structural basis for understanding of critical features affecting the actions of opiate drugs. This minireview summarizes these recent developments in our understanding of opiate receptors. Receptor function is also influenced by amino acid substitutions in the protein sequence. Among opioid receptor genes, one polymorphism is much more frequent in human populations than the many others that have been found, but the functional significance of this single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) has been unclear. Recent studies have shed new light on how this SNP might influence opioid receptor function. In this minireview, the functional significance of the most prevalent genetic polymorphism among the opioid receptor genes is also considered. ER -