Body and drug basics
Receptor
Last updated
A receptor is a structure on or inside a cell that a specific molecule can attach to, and the attaching is what changes the cell's behaviour. The usual image is a lock and key: the receptor is the lock, and only keys of roughly the right shape fit it. Nothing happens simply because a substance is present in the blood; something happens when it attaches to a receptor that a particular cell carries.
Why it matters here
A cell without a given receptor is largely deaf to whatever attaches to it, which is why one compound affects some tissues and leaves others alone. Many of the mechanism entries on this site are named after the receptor involved rather than after any outcome.
What it is not
Attaching to a receptor is not the same as producing an effect anyone would notice. Binding is a molecular event usually measured in a dish; whether it leads to something a person experiences is a separate question with its own, often much weaker, evidence.
Also called
- receptor
- receptors
- cell receptor
- binding site
- target receptor
- receptor subtype
Receptors are normally written as an abbreviation followed by a number, and that number is the subtype: closely related versions of the same lock, which a molecule may tell apart or may not.
Compounds carrying this term
None on file yet. This term is in the controlled vocabulary but no compound record currently uses it — which is a statement about our coverage, not about the term.