P2Y receptor

P2Y receptors are a family of purinergic receptors, G protein-coupled receptors stimulated by nucleotides such as ATP, ADP, UTP, UDP and UDP-glucose. To date, 12 P2Y receptors have been cloned in humans: P2Y1, P2Y2, P2Y4, P2Y5, P2Y6, P2Y8, P2Y9 (present in NCBI as GPR23),  P2Y10, P2Y11,  P2Y12, P2Y13 and P2Y14.

P2Y receptors are present in almost all human tissues where they exert various biological functions based on their G-protein coupling.

Coupling
The biological effects of P2Y receptor activation depends on how they couple to downstream signalling pathways, either via Gi, Gq/11 or Gs G proteins. Human P2Y receptors have the following G protein coupling:

The gaps in P2Y receptor numbering is due to that several receptors (P2Y3, P2Y5, P2Y7, P2Y8, P2Y9, P2Y10) were thought to be P2Y receptors when they were cloned, when in fact they are not.

Clinical significance

 * P2Y2 is a potential drug target for treating cystic fibrosis.


 * P2Y11 is a regulator of immune response, and a common polymorphism carried by almost 20% of North European caucasians give increased risk of myocardial infarction, making P2Y11 an interesting drug target candidate for treatment of myocardial infarction.


 * P2Y12 is the target of the anti-platelet drug clopidogrel and other thienopyridines.