Receptor Binding Techniques

A comprehensive collection of readily reproducible methods for studying receptors in silico, in vitro, and in vivo. These cutting-edge techniques cover mining from curated databases, identifying novel receptors by high throughput screening, molecular methods to identify mRNA encoding receptors, radioligand binding assays and their analysis, quantitative autoradiography, and imaging receptors by positron emission tomography (PET). Highlights include phenotypic characterization of receptors in knockout mice, imaging receptors using green fluorescent protein and fluorescent resonance energy transfer, and quantitative analysis of receptor mRNA by TaqMan PCR. These book equips the researcher with techniques for exploring the unprecedented number of new receptor systems now emerging and the so-called "orphan" receptors whose activating ligand has not been identified.

Receptor Databases and Computational Websites for Ligand Binding.- Identification of Orphan G Protein-Coupled Receptor Ligands Using FLIPR® Assays.- Quantitative Analysis of Orphan G Protein-Coupled Receptor mRNAs by TaqMan® Real-Time PCR.- mRNA.- Radioligand-Binding and Molecular-Imaging Techniques for the Quantitative Analysis of Established and Emerging Orphan Receptor Systems.- Measurement of Radioligand Binding by Scintillation Proximity Assay.- Autoradiography of Enzymes, Second Messenger Systems, and Ion Channels.- Immunocytochemical Localization of Receptors Using Light and Confocal Microscopy With Application to the Phenotypic Characterization of Knock-Out Mice.- Live Cell Imaging of G Protein-Coupled Receptors.- Imaging and Characterization of Radioligands for Positron Emission Tomography Using Quantitative Phosphor Imaging Autoradiography.- Dynamic In Vivo Imaging of Receptors in Small Animals Using Positron Emission Tomography.