| Abstract: |
The μ-opioid receptor (MOR) plays a fundamental role in mediating the actions of morphine and most clinical analgesic agents, as well as drugs of abuse such as heroin. Clinically, patients often display diverse responses toward various mu opioids, including analgesia, tolerance, and side effects, such as constipation, itch, and addiction. Alternative pre-mRNA splicing is a major mechanism for creating protein isoform diversity. Alternative pre-mRNA splicing can process pre-mRNA in multiple ways to produce different mature mRNAs. Evolution of the OPRM1 alternative splicing in the mammalian species highlights the special place of the OPRM1 gene in the opioid receptor gene family. Extensive alternative splicing of the OPRM1 gene creates not only RNA and protein diversity but also functional complexity demonstrated by various C-terminal full-length variants and truncated 6-TM variants. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |
