Mechanism of Action
Ghrelin Receptor Agonism
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The compound activates the ghrelin receptor, GHS-R1a, which normally responds to ghrelin, a hormone released mainly by the stomach. Activation at the pituitary and hypothalamus prompts growth hormone release. The same receptor is involved in appetite and gut motility, so one receptor action produces effects in several tissues. It is a different receptor from the GHRH receptor, although both routes end in growth hormone release.
Why it matters here
This is the mechanism behind the compounds usually filed as secretagogues, and it explains why appetite effects appear in the same records as growth hormone effects rather than as an unrelated aside.
What it is not
Activating a receptor is not producing a measured change in a person: a record can be well supported at the receptor and hold nothing at the outcome, and the rung on each claim is what tells you which. Growth hormone secretagogue is also an alias on our Growth Hormone Axis category, so the same phrase resolves to a mechanism and to a shelf.
Also called
- ghrelin agonist
- ghs-r agonist
- ghs-r1a
- growth hormone secretagogue receptor agonism
- ghrelin mimetic
- ghs-r1a agonist
- growth hormone secretagogue
- selective gh secretagogue
- ghrelin receptor
GHS-R1a is growth hormone secretagogue receptor type 1a, so GHS-R agonist, ghrelin agonist and ghrelin mimetic describe the same target. Selective GH secretagogue refers to selectivity for this receptor, not to selectivity of effect.