Adenosine receptors and their ligands

The regulatory actions of adenosine are mediated via four subtypes of G protein-coupled receptors distinguished as A(1), A(2A), A(2B) and A(3) receptors. Their presence on basically every cell makes them an interesting target for the pharmacological intervention in many pathophysiological situations. A large number of ligands have been synthesized over the last two decades and provide agonists and antagonists that are more or less selective for the known receptor subtypes. In addition, many radioligands are available in tritiated or radioiodinated form. The comparative pharmacological characterization of all four human adenosine receptor subtypes revealed that some of the compounds thought to be selective from data in other species have unexpected potencies at human receptors. As a result, compounds that exhibit high affinity to only one subtype are an exception. Although the selection of ligands is immense, it is less than satisfying for most subtypes of adenosine receptors.