Calcium-sensing receptor

The calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) is a G-protein coupled receptor which senses extracellular levels of calcium ion. In the parathyroid gland, the calcium-sensing receptor controls calcium homeostasis by regulating the release of parathyroid hormone.

Pathology
Mutations that inactivate CASR cause familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia (FHH), whereas mutations that activate CASR are the cause of autosomal dominant hypocalcemia. An alternatively spliced transcript variant encoding 1088 aa has been found for this gene, but its full-length nature has not been defined.

Therapeutic application
The drug cinacalcet is an allosteric modifier of the calcium-sensing receptor.