Deorphanization of human olfactory receptors by luciferase and Ca-imaging methods.

Olfactory receptors (ORs) are expressed at the cell surfaces of olfactory sensory neurons lining the olfactory epithelium and are the first actors for the perception and recognition of odorants.The olfactory system is mostly activated by ORs and odorants in the cAMP pathway. To date, few human ORs have been deorphanized, mainly because the difficulties encountered in expressing ORs at the cell surface.