Fig. 1.

Intracellular signaling pathways of calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor activation. One effect of CGRP receptor activation is adenylate cyclase-mediated cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) elevation, which leads to protein kinase A (PKA) activation, and activation of multiple targets depending on cell type. Nitric oxide synthesis may be the result of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) phosphorylation, gene transcription changes may be a result of cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) activation, and relaxation of vascular smooth muscle cells is partly a result of ATP-sensitive potassium channels (K+ channels) activation