Neuropeptides B/W receptor 1, also known as NPBW1 and GPR7, is a human protein encoded by the NPBWR1gene.[5] As implied by its name, it and related gene NPBW2 (with which it shares 70% nucleotide identity) are transmembranes protein that bind Neuropeptide B (NPB) and Neuropeptide W (NPW), both proteins expressed strongly in parts of the brain that regulate stress and fear including the extended amygdala and stria terminalis. When originally discovered in 1995, these receptors had no known ligands ("orphan receptors") and were called GPR7 and GPR8,[6] but at least three groups in the early 2000s independently identified their endogenous ligands, triggering the name change in 2005.[7]
^O’Dowd B. F., Scheideler M. A., Nguyen T., Cheng R., Rasmussen J. S., Marchese A., et al. (1995). The cloning and chromosomal mapping of two novel human opioid-somatostatin-like receptor genes, GPR7 and GPR8, expressed in discrete areas of the brain. Genomics 28, 84–91. doi:10.1006/geno.1995.1109
^Davenport A., Singh G. (2005). Neuropeptide W/Neuropeptide B Receptors – NPBW1. IUPHAR Receptor database. doi:10.1786/080844542445
