A Short History of the Drug Receptor Concept [Hardcover]

The concept of specific receptors for drugs, hormones and transmitters lies at the very heart of biomedicine. This book is the first to consider the idea from its 19th century origins?in the work of John Newport Langley and Paul Ehrlich, to its development of during the 20th century and its current impact on drug discovery in the 21st century.Introduction Paul Ehrlich and his Receptor Concept The Development of the Concept of Drug Receptors in the Physiological Research of J. N. Langley The Receptors and Scientific Pharmacology I: The Critics of the Receptor Idea and Alternative Theories of Drug Action, c. 1905-1935 The Receptors and Scientific Pharmacology II: The Critics of the Receptor Idea and Alternative Research Strands: The Transmitter Theory, c. 1905-1935 Quantitative Arguments for the Existence of Drug Receptors and the Development of the Receptor Occupancy Theory, c. 1910-1960 The Dual Adrenaline Receptor Theory of Raymond P. Ahlquist (1914-1983) and its Application in Drug Development between 1950 and 1970 The Emergence of Molecular Pharmacology Conclusions Archival Sources Bibliography
CAY-R?DIGER PR?LL?is Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Currently he is supervising projects on the history of pharmacology and on the history of German military medicine between 1914 and 1945. Between 2000 and 2003 he was Senior Research Associate at the University of Durham, UK, working on a project on the impact of the receptor concept on modern pharmacology, which was sponsored by the Wellcome Trust. He has published extensively on the history of medicine, pharmacology and pathology including Traditions in Pathology in Western Europe Theories, Institutions and their Cultural Setting.
ANDREAS-HOLGER MAEHLE?is Professor of the History of Medicine and Medical Ethics at Durham University, UK, where he directs the Centre for the History of Medicine?and Disease. He previously held a lectulC+