The concept of intrinsic efficacy has been enshrined in pharmacology for half of a century, yet recent data have revealed that many ligands can differentially activate signaling pathways mediated via a single G protein-coupled receptor in a manner that challenges the traditional definition of intrinsic efficacy. Some terms for this phenomenon include functional selectivity, agonist-directed trafficking, and biased agonism. At the extreme, functionally selective ligands may be both agonists and antagonists at different functions mediated by the same receptor. Data illustrating this phenomenon are presented from serotonin, opioid, dopamine, vasopressin, and adrenergic receptor systems. A variety of mechanisms may influence this apparently ubiquitous phenomenon. It may be initiated by differences in ligand-induced intermediate conformational states, as shown for the β₂-adrenergic receptor. Subsequent mechanisms that may play a role include diversity of G proteins, scaffolding and signaling partners, and receptor oligomers. Clearly, expanded research is needed to elucidate the proximal (e.g., how functionally selective ligands cause conformational changes that initiate differential signaling), intermediate (mechanisms that translate conformation changes into differential signaling), and distal mechanisms (differential effects on target tissue or organism). Besides the heuristically interesting nature of functional selectivity, there is a clear impact on drug discovery, because this mechanism raises the possibility of selecting or designing novel ligands that differentially activate only a subset of functions of a single receptor, thereby optimizing therapeutic action. It also may be timely to revise classic concepts in quantitative pharmacology and relevant pharmacological conventions to incorporate these new concepts.

Atypical antipsychotic drugs have revolutionized the treatment of schizophrenia and related disorders. The current clinically approved atypical antipsychotic drugs are characterized by having relatively low affinities for D₂-dopamine receptors and relatively high affinities for 5-HT_2A serotonin receptors (5-HT, 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin)). Aripiprazole (OPC-14597) is a novel atypical antipsychotic drug that is reported to be a high-affinity D₂-dopamine receptor partial agonist. We now provide a comprehensive pharmacological profile of aripiprazole at a large number of cloned G protein-coupled receptors, transporters, and ion channels. These data reveal a number of interesting and potentially important molecular targets for which aripiprazole has affinity. Aripiprazole has highest affinity for h5-HT_2B-, hD_2L-, and hD₃-dopamine receptors, but also has significant affinity (5–30 nM) for several other 5-HT receptors (5-HT_1A, 5-HT_2A, 5-HT₇), as well as α_1A-adrenergic and hH₁-histamine receptors. Aripiprazole has less affinity (30–200 nM) for other G protein-coupled receptors, including the 5-HT_1D, 5-HT_2C, α_1B-, α_2A-, α_2B-, α_2C-, β₁-, and β₂-adrenergic, and H₃-histamine receptors. Functionally, aripiprazole is an inverse agonist at 5-HT_2B receptors and displays partial agonist actions at 5-HT_2A, 5-HT_2C, D₃, and D₄ receptors. Interestingly, we also discovered that the functional actions of aripiprazole at cloned human D₂-dopamine receptors are cell-type selective, and that a range of actions (eg agonism, partial agonism, antagonism) at cloned D₂-dopamine receptors are possible depending upon the cell type and function examined. This mixture of functional actions at D₂-dopamine receptors is consistent with the hypothesis proposed by Lawler et al (1999) that aripiprazole has ‘functionally selective’ actions. Taken together, our results support the hypothesis that the unique actions of aripiprazole in humans are likely a combination of ‘functionally selective’ activation of D₂ (and possibly D₃)-dopamine receptors, coupled with important interactions with selected other biogenic amine receptors—particularly 5-HT receptor subtypes (5-HT_1A, 5-HT_2A).

Functional selectivity is the term that describes drugs that cause markedly different signaling through a single receptor (e.g., full agonist at one pathway and antagonist at a second). It has been widely recognized recently that this phenomenon impacts the understanding of mechanism of action of some drugs, and has relevance to drug discovery. One of the clinical areas where this mechanism has particular importance is in the treatment of schizophrenia. Antipsychotic drugs have been grouped according to both pattern of clinical action and mechanism of action. The original antipsychotic drugs such as chlorpromazine and haloperidol have been called typical or first generation. They cause both antipsychotic actions and many side effects (extrapyramidal and endocrine) that are ascribed to their high affinity dopamine D2 receptor antagonism. Drugs such as clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone and others were then developed that avoided the neurological side effects (atypical or second generation antipsychotics). These compounds are divided mechanistically into those that are high affinity D2 and 5-HT2A antagonists, and those that also bind with modest affinity to D2, 5-HT2A, and many other neuroreceptors. There is one approved third generation drug, aripiprazole, whose actions have been ascribed alternately to either D2 partial agonism or D2 functional selectivity. Although partial agonism has been the more widely accepted mechanism, the available data are inconsistent with this mechanism. Conversely, the D2 functional selectivity hypothesis can accommodate all current data for aripiprazole, and also impacts on discovery compounds that are not pure D2 antagonists.

Objective: To evaluate the relative importance of smoking duration vs intensity in reducing the risk of Parkinson disease (PD). Methods: The study included 305,468 participants of the NIH-AARP Diet and Health cohort, of whom 1,662 had a PD diagnosis after 1995. We estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals from multivariate logistic regression models. Results: Compared with never smokers, the multivariate ORs were 0.78 for past smokers and 0.56 for current smokers. Among past smokers, a monotonic trend toward lower PD risk was observed for all indicators of more smoking. Stratified analyses indicated that smoking duration was associated with lower PD risk within fixed intensities of smoking. For example, compared with never smokers, the ORs among past smokers who smoked >20 cigarettes/day were 0.96 for 1–9 years of smoking, 0.78 for 10–19 years, 0.64 for 20–29 years, and 0.59 for 30 years or more (p for trend = 0.001). In contrast, at fixed duration, the typical number of cigarettes smoked per day in general was not related to PD risk. Close examination of smoking behaviors in early life showed that patients with PD were less likely to be smokers at each age period, but if they smoked, they smoked similar numbers of cigarettes per day as individuals without PD. Conclusions: This large study suggests that long-term smoking is more important than smoking intensity in the smoking–Parkinson disease relationship.