2. Key features of ago-antagonistic modeling

2.1 Notions of agonism and antagonism

The first characteristic will enable us to define the notions of antagonism and agonism. Antagonistic actions correspond to opposite effects on certain receptors of these actions, while agonistic actions correspond to effects in the same direction on other receptors (or other parts of the same receptor). Or we could say that antagonistic regulation concerns the relative values, while agonistic regulation concerns the absolute values of these agents. The mere notion of an opposing pair (without agonism) is in fact insufficient: