The Development of the Concept of Drug Receptors in the Physiological Research of John Newport Langley

Abstract

Whilst Paul Ehrlich was effectively the first to develop a receptor concept in the context of immunology, it was the Cambridge physiologist, John Newport Langley (1852–1925) who first proposed a receptor theory for the action of drugs and transmitter substances in the body. In this chapter we discuss how Langley developed, over a period of 30 years and in diverse research contexts, his ideas on the mode of action of drugs and physiological substances on tissues and cells. In 1905 these ideas culminated in the first full formulation of his concept of ‘receptive substances’ in cells.1 We will also consider the influence of other British and Continental European scientists on Langley’s thought and experimentation, and how his research themes were linked to other work in the Cambridge physiological laboratory and to the development of his academic career.