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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Jun 12.
Published in final edited form as: Pharmacol Ther. 2010 Sep 6;128(3):460–487. doi: 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2010.08.011

Figure 1. CRF Ligands and Receptors.

Figure 1

CRF and structurally related peptides urocortin 1, urocortin 2, and urocortin 3 (top of diagram) act as agonists with varying relative affinities for the CRF1 receptor (left) and CRF2 receptor (right). CRF shows the greatest selectivity for the CRF1 receptor whereas urocortin 2 and urocortin 3 show greatest selectivity for the CRF2 receptor. Not shown are the variants CRF1a (for the CRF1 receptor) and CRF2a, CRF2b, and CRF2c (for the CRF2 receptor). Peptidic antagonists (bottom of diagram) are either non-selective for the two subtypes or are selective for the CRF2 receptor. Small molecule, non-peptidic antagonists show a high degree of selectivity for the CRF1 receptor.