Identification of human dopamine receptors agonists from Chinese herbs.

Aim: To find human dopamine receptors, especially D1-like receptor specific agonists from Chinese herbs as potential antihypertension drug leads.

Methods: Two D1-like receptor cell lines carrying a beta-lactamase reporter gene, and a D2 receptor cell line coexpressing a promiscuous G protein G15 were constructed using HEK293 cells. A natural compound library made from fractionated samples of herbal extracts was used for high-throughput screening (HTS) against one of the cell lines, HEK/D5R/CRE-blax.