 | This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Ligands are now partially identified along with a few other new discoveries. (March 2024) |
In biochemistry, an orphan receptor is a protein that has a similar structure to other identified receptors but whose endogenous ligand has not yet been identified. If a ligand for an orphan receptor is later discovered, the receptor is referred to as an "adopted orphan".[1] Conversely, the term orphan ligand refers to a biological ligand whose cognate receptor has not yet been identified.
- ^ Nanduri, Ravikanth; Bhutani, Isha; Somavarapu, Arun Kumar; Mahajan, Sahil; Parkesh, Raman; Gupta, Pawan (2015-01-01). "ONRLDB—manually curated database of experimentally validated ligands for orphan nuclear receptors: insights into new drug discovery". Database. 2015: bav112. doi:10.1093/database/bav112. PMC 4669993. PMID 26637529.