Hans-Peter NothackerSpecialist, Pharmacology |
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Research Interests |
Neuroscience, urotensin II, G -protein-coupled receptor, drug development, state of the art, bioinformatics | |
| URLs | Pharmacology Home Page | |
| Lab (Member of Dr. Civelli's Lab) | ||
| See below for selected publications or click here for additional publication listings available via Pub Med | ||
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Academic Distinctions |
2004, Recipient of the College of Medicine Research Award 2006, Inducted into the list of “Leading Health Professionals of the World”, International Biographical Center, Cambridge, England |
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Research Abstract |
Hans-Peter Nothacker, Ph.D. Assistant Adjunct Professor, is a biochemist and neuroscientist with main focus on a specific receptor family, the G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). This group of receptors play important physiological roles and have been said to be "involved in everything from sex in yeast to cognition in humans"(Gilman A.G. 1994). These receptors constitute a supergene family with an estimated number of 1000 members which is the largest gene family known in the human genome. Ligands for GPCRs are extremely diverse in structure and function and include neurotransmitters, hormones, chemotactic factors, chemokines, odorants, pheromomes and gustatory molecules. GPCRs are an important receptor group targeted by drugs for pain, allergies, hypertension, ulcer and schizophrenia and hence an important gene family for the development of novel drugs. Dr. Nothacker’s research focuses on GPCRs which have not found a molecular partner yet the so-called orphan GPCRs. The goal is to purify and isolate ligands for the orphan GPCRs from different tissue sources and elucidate their structure by mass spectrometry and related physico-chemical methods. A broad array of techniques are applied to solve the problem including bioinformatics, molecular cloning, heterologous expression of receptors in cell culture, HPLC and state-of-the-art high through put Ca2+ assays. Once a ligand is discovered Dr. Nothacker is interested in studying the physiological function of the new receptor-ligand system using behavioral animal models. |
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| Publications |
Recent Publications: Nothacker, H.-P, Wang, Z., Zhu, Y., Lin S.H., Reinscheid, R.K. and Civelli, O. (2000) Molecular cloning and characterization of a second human Cysteinyl leukotriene receptor: Discovery of a subtype specific agonist. Molecular Pharmacology 58: 1601-1608. Reinscheid R.K., Nothacker H.-P., Civelli O. (2000) The orphanin FQ/nociceptin gene: structure, tissue distribution of expression and functional implications obtained from knockout mice. Peptides. 21(7):901-906. Opgaard O. S., Nothacker, H.-P, Ehlert J. E., and Krause D.N. (2000) Human urotensin II mediates vasoconstriction via increase in inositol phosphate. Eur. J. Pharmacol. 406(2):265-271. Saito, Y., Nothacker, H.-P. and Civelli O. (2000) Melanin-concentrating hormone receptor: An orphan receptor fits the key. Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism 11, 299-303. Civelli O., Nothacker, H.-P, Saito, Y., Wang, Z., Lin, S. and Reinscheid, R.K. (2001) Novel neurotransmitters as natural ligands of orphan G protein-coupled receptors. Trends in Neuroscience 24(4) 230-237. Clark, S. D., Nothacker, H.-P, Wang, Z., Saito, Y., Leslie F. M. and Civelli, O.(2001). The urotensin II receptor is expressed in the cholinergic mesopontine tegmentum of the rat. Brain Research 923:120-127. Lin S. H. S., Arai A. C., Wang, Z., Nothacker, H.-P. and Olivier Civelli. (2001) The carboxyl terminus of the prolactin-releasing peptide receptor interacts with PDZ domain proteins involved in-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid receptor clustering. Molecular Pharmacology 60 (5) 916-923. Huitron-Resendiz S., Kristensen M.P. ,Sánchez-Alavez M. , Clark S.D., Grupke S.L., Tyler C., Suzuk C. , Nothacker H.-P, Civelli, O., Criado J.R., Henriksen S.J., Leonard C.S. and de Lecea L. (2005) Urotensin II modulates rapid eye movement sleep through activation of brainstem cholinergic nuclei. Journal of Neuroscience 25: 5465-5474. IF: 7.907 Nothacker H.-P, Wang Z., Zeng H., Mahata S.H., O’ Connor D.T. and Civelli O. (2005) Proadrenomedullin N-terminal peptide and cortistatin activation of MrgX2 receptor is based on a common structural motif. European Journal of Pharmacology 519: 191-193. IF: 2.432 Clark S.D., Nothacker H.-P., Blaha C.D., Tyler C.J., Duangdao D.M., Grupke S.L., Helton D.R., Leonard C.S. and Civelli O. (2005) Urotensin II acts as a modulator of mesopontine cholinergic neurons Brain Research 1059: 139-148 IF.: 2.389 Arai A.C., Xia Y.F., Suzuki E., Kessler M., Civelli O., and Nothacker. H.-P. (2005) Cancer metastasis suppressing peptide metastin upregulates excitatory synaptic transmission in hippocampal dentate granule cells. Journal of Neurophysiology 94:3648-3652. .IF: 3.592 Nothacker H.-P. and Clark S.D. (2005) From Heart to Mind: The Urotensin II system and its evolving neurophysiological role. FEBS Journal. 272: 5694-5702. Civelli O., Saito Y., Wang Z., Nothacker H.-P. and Reinscheid R.K. (2006) Orphan GPCRs and their ligands. Pharmacology & Therapeutics. 110: 525-532. Jackson, V.R.; Lin, S.H..; Wang, Z.; Nothacker, H.-P. and; Civelli, O. (2006) A study of the rat neuropeptide B/neuropeptide W system using in situ techniques. J. Comp. Neurol. 497: 367-383. Jackson, V.R.; Nothacker, H.-P. and; Civelli, O. (2006). GPR39 receptor expression in the mouse brain. Neuroreport 17 (8): 813-816. Wang Z., Takahashi T., Saito Y., Nagasaki H., Ly N.K.; Nothacker H.-P., Reinscheid R.K., Yang J., Chang J.K., Shichiri M. and Civelli O. (2006) Salusin ? is a surrogate ligand of the mas-like G protein-coupled receptor MrgA1. European Journal of Pharmacology 539:145-150 Nagasaki H., Wang Z., Jackson V.R., Lin S., and Nothacker H.-P., Civelli O. (2006). Differential Expression of the Thyrostimulin subunits, Glycoprotein Alpha 2 (GPA2) and Beta 5 (GPB5) in the Rat Pituitary. Journal of Molecular Endocrinology 37: 39-50. |
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Professional Societies |
Society of Neuroscience American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeut |
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| Link to this profile | http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=4523 | |
| Last updated | 01/10/2009 | |