The Parathyroid Hormone Family of Ligands and Receptors

Abstract

The PTH family of ligands and receptors have a wide range of vital functions from calcium homeostasis to tissue and bone development from the embryo to adult. This family has undergone whole genome duplication events predating vertebrate evolution, indicating more primitive and ancient functions other than skeletal development. The N-terminal region of the ligands, have been widely studied by biophysical and functional analysis, resulting in the discovery of key characteristics essential for ligand-receptor activation being elucidated. Multi-substituted amino acid analogs with differential binding affinities and either antagonistic or agonistic signalling potencies have been created based on these findings allowing for improvement on potential therapies affected by the PTH system in skeletal and embryonic development. The PTH family has diversely evolved to cover a wide range of pivotal pathways crucial to growth and development throughout all animal life.

Keywords

• Parathyroid hormone (PTH)
• parathyroid hormone related protein (PTHrP)
• tuberoinfundibular peptide 39 (TIP39)
• parathyroid hormone like peptide (PTH-L)
• G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs)
• parathyroid hormone receptors (PTHR1, PTHR2, PTHR3)
• epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)
• zebrafish, xenopus
• elephant shark