Greetings.
I am search and read about papers about orphan receptor now.
And some question floated in my head, that is, 'why orphan receptor's ligand not yet discovered?'.
I've heard that due to the development of molecular biology, we can find receptor first by sequencing. In past, researchers found receptor after found ligand.
How ligands are discovered and why we try to find a ligand for orphan receptor? and, despite we try to hard, why orphan receptor's ligand not yet?
The question is not phrased appropriately, but by definition, orphan receptors are identified using sequence similarity but not ligand-receptor interactions. There are ligands of the orphan receptors, e.g.,
Chapter Cannabinoid Receptor-Related Orphan G Protein-Coupled Receptors
Simply, If a ligand for an orphan receptor is discovered, the receptor is referred to as an "adopted orphan"!
I do not anything of this question, but maybe I can still answer one. ligands are discovered by mutation in vitro. they try to find why diseases are discovered and they make mutations to the organism. a very interesting question.
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