The IUPHAR database in 2009: curated data on GPCRs and ion channels

Joanna Sharman1, Chido Mpamhanga1, Valerie Hale1, Martin Jones2, Anthony Harmar1, NC-IUPHAR3. 1Centre for Cardiovascular Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH16 4TJ, United Kingdom, 2Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, United Kingdom, 3International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology Committee on Receptor Nomenclature and Drug, Classification.

The International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology Nomenclature Committee (NC-IUPHAR) and subcommittees have worked for the last 5 years to develop a publicly available database (IUPHAR-DB) integrating pharmacological, chemical, genetic, functional and anatomical information on drug targets and related proteins. Presently the database (http://www.iuphar-db.org) contains data on the 354 non-sensory G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), 71 ligand-gated ion channel subunits and 141 voltage-gated ion channel subunits encoded by the human, rat and mouse genomes. Additionally, NC-IUPHAR continues to assess the evidence for in vivo combinatorial arrangement of subunits into functional heteromultimeric receptors. Individual receptor pages provide details about their function, ligands, expression patterns, functional assays and biologically important receptor variants (e.g. single nucleotide polymorphisms and splice variants). The phenotypes resulting from experimentally altered gene expression and naturally-occurring genetic mutations are described. In addition, “bespoke” data for individual classes of proteins are provided, such as signalling mechanisms for GPCRs and ion conductances for voltage- and ligand-gated ion channels. Users can also access ligand-centered pages summarising information about unique ligand molecules (e.g. synonyms and binding affinities at all relevant receptors). All data included in IUPHAR-DB are curated from primary literature and peer-reviewed by a network of expert contributors. Links are provided to genomic, proteomic, chemical and literature repositories. With over 2000 unique visitors a week, IUPHAR-DB is a valuable reference and teaching resource for pharmacologists in academia and industry worldwide.

We thank the British Pharmacological Society, UNESCO, GlaxoSmithKline, Incyte, Novartis, Servier and Wyeth for their support.