IMR Press / FBL / Volume 9 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.2741/1362

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
Post-transcriptional regulation of opioid receptors in the nervous system
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1 Department of Pharmacology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2004, 9(2), 1665–1679; https://doi.org/10.2741/1362
Published: 1 May 2004
Abstract

Three types of opioid receptors exist in the animals, each is encoded by a single gene, i.e., the mu opioid receptor gene, the delta opioid receptor gene, and the kappa opioid receptor gene. However, each opioid receptor gene produces multiple mRNA variants as a result of alternative promoter usages, splicing and/or polyadenylation. As such, a large reservoir of regulatory events has evolved for the control of the production of mRNA variants or differentially modified proteins from each opioid receptor gene. This review focuses on post-transcriptional events for the regulation of opioid receptor expression or activities, including alternative splicing, mRNA stability, translation, RNA polyadenylation, RNA transport, and covalent modification of the receptors. Variation at the mRNA level contributes, primarily, to the control of spatial and temporal expression of these receptors in different parts of neurons; whereas modification at the receptors is the key for controlling the duration and amplitude of signals generated from these receptors.

Keywords
Opioid receptor
Regulation
mRNA variant
RNA processing
RNA transport
Covalent modifications
Review
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