ABSTRACT
VII. CONCLUDING REMARKS There appears to be an incipient view among molecular biologists and pharmacologists interested in receptor classification that receptors should be characterized and classified using an integrated approach based on both receptor structure and operation. As structural information is definitive, it will always be preeminent in terms of receptor identification and archival reference. If only to avoid ambiguity, the primary archival data will be the structure of the receptor gene or genes (for multimeric receptors) and the inferred amino acid sequence of the corresponding protein(s ). The recognitory characteristics of the receptor derived from operational data will also be essential and diagnostic for a given receptor. Regardless, the identification of selective ligands, be they agonists or antagonists, will be a sine qua non for drug design. Whether transductional data should be considered as important or essential data for characterization purposes remains to be determined. The current consensus favors integrating transductional with recognitory data, which collectively relates to receptor operation.
