British journal of pharmacology

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Endometriosis is a chronic, hormone-dependent disorder characterized by ectopic implantation of endometrial tissue, often accompanied by pain and infertility. Although the progesterone receptor modulator RU486 is eff…

The Concise Guide to Pharmacology 2025/26 marks the seventh edition in this series of biennial publications in the British Journal of Pharmacology. Presented in landscape format, the guide provides a comparative overview of the pharmacology…

Vaccines have reduced the transmission and severity of COVID-19, but there remains a paucity of efficacious treatment for drug-resistant strains and more susceptible individuals, particularly those who mount a suboptimal vaccine response, e…

Background and purposeTransient receptor potential melastatin 3 (TRPM3) is a non-selective cation channel that plays a pivotal role in the peripheral nervous system as a transducer of painful heat signals. Alternative splicing gives rise to…

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Limited evidence suggests that the sphingosine-1-phosphate/sphingosine kinase 1 (S1P/SPHK1) signalling pathway is involved in the pathogenesis of endometriosis. Therefore, we analyzed in this study whether the inhibi…

Background and purposeThe transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channel TRPM3 functions as a noxious heat sensor, plays a key role in acute pain sensation and inflammatory hyperalgesia in rodents. Despite its potential as a novel analgesic…

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The development of endometriotic lesions is crucially dependent on the formation of new blood vessels. In the present study, we analysed whether this process is regulated by erythropoietin-producing hepatoma receptor…

Background and purposeMacrophage infiltration and activation is a critical step during acute pancreatitis (AP). We have shown that pancreas-specific D2 receptor signalling protects against AP severity. As it is unclear to what extent myeloi…

Background and purposeThe P2X3 receptor is an ATP-gated ion channel expressed by sensory afferent neurons and is used as a target to treat chronic sensitisation conditions. The first-in-class, selective P2X3 and P2X2/3 receptor antagonist, …

Detecting and avoiding noxious heat is crucial to prevent burn injury. While the nociceptor neurons involved in conveying heat-induced pain were identified more than a century ago, the molecular sensors responsible for detecting noxious hea…

In contrast to the availability of potent and selective antagonists of several prostaglandin receptor types (including DP1 , DP2 , EP and TP receptors), there has been a paucity of well-characterized, selective FP receptor antagonists. The …

Arterial stiffness progressively increases with aging and is an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Evidence supports that there are sex differences in the time course of aging-related arterial stiffness and the asso…

The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2019/20 is the fourth in this series of biennial publications. The Concise Guide provides concise overviews of the key properties of nearly 1800 human drug targets with an emphasis on selective pharmacology…

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: A high recurrence rate after medical treatment is a major clinical problem for patients with endometriosis. Here, we have evaluated the in vitro effects of combined treatment with MK2206 (an AKT inhibitor) + chloroqu…

We read with great interest the article by Matsuzaki et al. (2018) entitled ‘In vitro and in vivo effects of MK2206 and chloroquine combination therapy on endometriosis: autophagy may be required for regrowth of endometriosis’ recently publ…

Background and purposeTherapeutic area guidelines (TAGs) published by the EMA and the FDA offer guidance in planning the launch of a trial in a certain indication. We assessed and compared the guidance on preclinical efficacy of all availab…

We thank the Editor-in Chief, Professor Amrita Ahluwalia, for her fair handling of the letter from Barra et al. (2018), as well as her openness. We acknowledge the interest of Barra et al. in our work, but we are obliged to respond to their…

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Telmisartan suppresses the development of endometriotic lesions. However, the drug also up-regulates the expression of COX-2, which has been suggested to promote the progression of endometriosis. Accordingly, in the …

Background and purposeDopamine has multiple anti-inflammatory effects, but its role and molecular mechanism in acute pancreatitis (AP) are unclear. We investigated the role of dopamine signalling in the inflammatory response in AP.Experimen…

Recent discoveries in the non-coding genome have challenged the original central dogma of molecular biology, as non-coding RNAs and related processes have been found to be important in regulating gene expression. MicroRNAs and long non-codi…

Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) has emerged as a potential nutraceutical, because this compound is naturally produced in many plant and animal food sources, as well as in cells and tissues of mammals, and endowed with important neuroprotective,…

Background and purposeDrug-target residence time is an important, yet often overlooked, parameter in drug discovery. Multiple studies have proposed an increased residence time to be beneficial for improved drug efficacy and/or longer durati…

Background and purposeHydrogen sulphide reduces uterine contractility and is of potential interest as a treatment for uterine disorders. The aim of this study was to explore the mechanism of sodium sulphide (Na2 S)-induced relaxation of rat…

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Lipoxins can function as endogenous 'breaking signals' in inflammation and play important roles in the progression of endometriosis. In this study, we further investigated the molecular mechanism by which lipoxin A4 …