Themed Issues

Stay up-to-date with our must read themed articles by visiting our Published Issues and Sections page.

Increase the impact of your paper or review by submitting to a themed issue or section, see below for a list of our planned issues and sections.

Upcoming themed issues and sections


THEMED SECTION: Receptor pharmacology methods under the spotlight
Guest Editor: Steven Charlton
Submissions now closed

G protein-coupled (or 7TM) receptors remain the most utilised class of protein targets in drug therapy. For decades the characteristics of new receptor ligands have been assessed using either binding techniques or measuring intracellular second messenger levels. Now, hundreds of new receptor ligands are made each day across the pharmaceutical industry and academia, necessitating the utilisation of higher-throughput methodologies. During the gradual process of converting test-tube experiments to plate-based assays, systems have been miniaturised and new detection technology has been invented. This industrialisation of pharmacology has resulted in a subtle shift in priority from high assay fidelity to the high reproducibility considered essential for routinely run experiments. So, rather than focus on generating assay systems that closely represent the physiological situation, assay developers have tended towards optimising primarily on window size, choosing the conditions that give the highest Z-factor.

This themed issue will be devoted to taking a closer look at how assay design can influence observed affinity and efficacy of receptor ligands, and how this can sometimes result in large differences in parameters that are often considered constant e.g. the equilibrium dissociation constant KA. It will also address common assay artifacts that often lead to the misinterpretation of data. To provide a balanced opinion, each review will be authored by an academic and industrial expert in the field. In addition, we invite the submission of novel work in the area of receptor pharmacology methods to be published in this themed issue, with the ultimate aim of redressing the balance between assay fidelity and throughput.


THEMED ISSUE: FAMILY B GPCRs
Papers due 31 March 2011
Guest Editors: Debbie Hay and David Poyner
Submit your original research here

The British Journal of Pharmacology will be publishing a themed issue on Family B GPCRs in August 2011 to be Guest Edited by Drs Debbie Hay and David Poyner. The physiological and clinical importance of these receptors is substantial, as evidenced by recent studies with knockout animals and new, selective antagonists. Whilst historically the pharmaceutical industry has struggled to develop agents which act on these receptors, this is now changing, with marketed therapies targeting GLP-1, amylin, calcitonin and glucagon receptors as examples and many others at different stages of development. The field also has important structural data regarding how the peptides bind to their receptors which will facilitate the development of non-peptide ligands. Once bound, the process of receptor activation by agonists appears to be distinct from that seen with other GPCRs. There is an increasing awareness of the complexities of signalling mediated by these receptors and how they can be modulated by association with other proteins and by splicing.

The journal welcomes papers on all aspects of the function and structure of these receptors, for consideration for the themed issue.
 

Search the Site

Search

 

Site Adverts