<p>Ok, so any psychoactive drug will have different affinities for different receptor types. For instance, sertraline has an extreme affinity for the SERT and very little affinity for the 5-HT1A receptor.</p>
<p>But what about serotonin and dopamine themselves? Serotonin must be more likely to bind to one type of serotonin receptor than others. This would be very important for determining the clinical effect of something like 5-HTP or L-DOPA.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-27T15:59:50.963Z
This won't really answer your question about clinical effects of 5-HTP or L-DOPA. Monoaminergic transmission is quite complex, you can't just compare Ki, receptor activation has a lot to do with the spatial arrangement of synapses, transmitter transport/degradation, receptor trafficking and expression changes, etc.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-28T08:20:29.497Z
I understand but I still want to know the answer. I have a hypothesis that 5HT and DA play favorites with receptors just as much as drugs. So the first question is, has anyone actually conducted this experiment?
JClaussFTW
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-28T14:43:14.947Z
Yes, people have measured binding constants of monoamine receptors. Your hypothesis is a bit superficial, though. Unlike drugs that float around freely and act much according to their affinities, endogenous neurotransmitters are released briefly and locally in fairly high concentrations. Affinities don't tell you much about which receptors are activated if you don't also know where the receptors are, where neurotransmitter is released, etc. It's far more complicated than that and I fear you'll draw the wrong conclusions from the information you ask.
Bryan Krause
<neuroscience><psychopharmacology><neuro-transmitters><dopamine><serotonin>
What are the pharmacodynamics (Ki nM) of the monoamine neurotransmitters?
JClaussFTW
# What are the pharmacodynamics (Ki nM) of the monoamine neurotransmitters?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-01-27)

Ok, so any psychoactive drug will have different affinities for different receptor types. For instance, sertraline has an extreme affinity for the SERT and very little affinity for the 5-HT1A receptor.

But what about serotonin and dopamine themselves? Serotonin must be more likely to bind to one type of serotonin receptor than others. This would be very important for determining the clinical effect of something like 5-HTP or L-DOPA.

**Tags:** neuroscience, psychopharmacology, neuro-transmitters, dopamine, serotonin

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This won't really answer your question about clinical effects of 5-HTP or L-DOPA. Monoaminergic transmission is quite complex, you can't just compare Ki, receptor activation has a lot to do with the spatial arrangement of synapses, transmitter transport/degradation, receptor trafficking and expression changes, etc.  
> **username_0**: I understand but I still want to know the answer. I have a hypothesis that 5HT and DA play favorites with receptors just as much as drugs. So the first question is, has anyone actually conducted this experiment?  
> **username_1**: Yes, people have measured binding constants of monoamine receptors. Your hypothesis is a bit superficial, though. Unlike drugs that float around freely and act much according to their affinities, endogenous neurotransmitters are released briefly and locally in fairly high concentrations. Affinities don't tell you much about which receptors are activated if you don't also know where the receptors are, where neurotransmitter is released, etc. It's far more complicated than that and I fear you'll draw the wrong conclusions from the information you ask.  

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