Jean D. Deupree

Radioligand Binding Methods for Membrane Preparations and Intact Cells

The radioligand binding assay is a relatively simple but powerful tool for studying G protein-coupled receptors. There are three basic types of radioligand binding experiments: (1) saturation experiments from which the affinity of the radioligand for the receptor and the binding site density can be determined; (2) inhibition experiments from which the affinity of a competing, unlabeled compound for the receptor can be determined; and (3) kinetic experiments from which the forward and reverse rate constants for radioligand binding can be determined. Detailed methods for typical radioligand binding assays for G protein-coupled receptors in membranes and intact cells are presented for these types of experiments. Detailed procedures for analysis of the data obtained from these experiments are also given.

Differential effects of the tricyclic antidepressant desipramine on the density of adrenergic receptors in juvenile and adult rats.

Although the tricyclic antidepressants, such as desipramine (DMI), are among the most efficacious treatments for adult depression, they are not effective in treating childhood and adolescent depression. Because the adrenergic nervous system is not fully developed until late adolescence, we hypothesized that the mechanisms regulating receptor density may not yet be mature in young mammals. To test this hypothesis, the effects of DMI treatment on cortical α-1-, α-2-, and β-adrenergic receptors were compared in juvenile and adult rats. DMI was delivered either by 4 days of twice daily injections to postnatal day 9 to 13 (4 and 7 mg/kg/day) and adult (20 mg/kg/day) rats, or by 2 weeks of continual drug infusion (osmotic minipumps) to postnatal day 21-35 (15 mg/kg/day) and adult (10 mg/kg/day) rats. These delivery paradigms gave juvenile brain concentrations of DMI similar to those in adult rats. The β-adrenergic receptor was down-regulated with both treatment paradigms in both juvenile and adult rats. By contrast, in the postnatal day 9 to 13 rats, there was a dose-dependent up-regulation of the α-1 in the cortex and α-2-adrenergic receptor in the prefrontal cortex, whereas there was no change in density in adult rats. These differences in the α-adrenergic receptor regulation after DMI treatment suggest that the lack of efficacy of tricyclic antidepressants in treating childhood depression may be related to immature regulatory mechanisms for these receptors.

Interference of biogenic amines with the measurement of proteins using bicinchoninic acid

The use of bicinchoninic acid (BCA) to measure protein concentrations has received wide acceptance because the reagent is insensitive to many of the buffers, sucrose solutions and detergents used with various tissue and enzyme preparations. However, any compound capable of reducing Cu2+ in an alkaline medium such as biogenic amines will produce a color reaction. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether biogenic amines present in neuronal tissue would interfere with the measurement of protein using the BCA method. Catecholamines were found to produce a linear increase in color of the BCA reagent at concentrations between 1 and 100 nmol/2.1 ml assay volume. Catecholamines appeared to be more sensitive to the BCA reagent than either serotonin or ascorbic acid. Catecholamines at concentrations of 50 nmol/mg of protein or 1 nmol/2.1 ml assay volume or higher will produce significantly (P less than 0.0001) higher color reactions than protein alone. The BCA reagent is not ideal for measuring protein concentrations of intact synaptic vesicles and chromaffin granules since the catecholamine concentrations in these organelles are high enough to increase the color developed by 1.1 to 2.5 times that observed with protein alone. The linearity of the color development produced by catecholamines suggest that BCA could be used to quantitate catecholamine concentrations between 1 and 100 nmol. The BCA reagent will not distinguish between the different catecholamines.

Binding sites for 125I-neuropeptide Y (NPY) on membranes from bovine adrenal medulla.

Bovine adrenal medulla membranes were examined for the presence of specific 125I-neuropeptide Y (125I-NPY) binding sites using rapid centrifugation to measure the amount of bound ligand. Specific binding was determined from the difference between 125I-NPY bound in the presence and absence of 10(-7) M unlabeled NPY. The binding was saturable and reached equilibrium within 5 min at 0 degrees C. Analysis of specific 125I-NPY binding using the LIGAND computer program indicated a best fit for a two site model with a Kd of 0.26 nM and a Bmax of 12 fmol/mg protein for the high affinity site and a Kd of 170 nM and a Bmax of 6 pmol/mg protein for the low affinity site. The rate of dissociation (k-1) was 0.071/min with a t1/2 of 9 min. Displacement curves for avian or human pancreatic polypeptide revealed that these peptides displaced 125I-NPY from both sites with IC50 values greater than 10 nM.

Appropriate dosing regimens for treating juvenile rats with desipramine for neuropharmacological and behavioral studies

The tricyclic antidepressants, including desipramine (DMI), are no better than placebo in treating childhood and adolescent depression, but are effective in adult depression. Animal studies comparing the effects of DMI in juveniles and adults are complicated by age-related variations in elimination rates. Thus, different dosing regiments are needed to achieve similar brain drug levels in juvenile and adult rats. We compared the half-life of DMI as well as the brain and serum concentrations of DMI and its active metabolite desmethyldesipramine in juvenile and adult rats after various drug administration paradigms. After acute i.p. administration DMI is eliminated from the brain more slowly in postnatal day (PND) 21 and 28 rats as compared to adults. After chronic i.p. administration (for 4-5 days between PND 9 and 28), lower doses of DMI are needed with juvenile rats to obtain the same brain DMI concentrations as adults. By contrast, 2 weeks of continuous drug delivery (minipump) to PND 21-35 and adult rats result in similar brain DMI concentrations. Thus, the pharmacokinetic properties of DMI varies with the age of the animal and dosing of DMI and needs to be carefully adjusted in order to have appropriate brain levels of the drug.

Down-regulation of the alpha-2C adrenergic receptor: involvement of a serine/threonine motif in the third cytoplasmic loop.

BackgroundThe mechanisms by which alpha-2 adrenergic receptors are down-regulated following chronic exposure to agonist are not well understood. Interestingly, the human alpha-2C receptor does not down-regulate, whereas the opossum alpha-2C receptor does down-regulate. A comparison of the amino acid sequence of the third intracellular loop of these two receptors shows that the opossum alpha-2C receptor contains a potential G protein-coupled receptor kinase (GRK)phosphorylation motif (EESSTSE) with four hydroxyl residues, whereas the human alpha-2C receptor motif only contains two hydroxyl residues (DESSAAAAE). Because a similar acidic serine-rich motif (EESSSSD) in the human alpha-2 adrenergic receptor has been demonstrated to be phosphorylated by GRK and all four serines are required for desensitization of the receptor, we sought to determine whether the EESSTSE sequence was involved in the down-regulation of the alpha-2C adrenergic receptor.ResultsSite-directed mutagenesis was used to mutate the opossum alpha-2C receptor to SSVA and AAVA in place of the SSTS wild-type sequence. Down-regulation experiments on CHO cells transfected with the receptors demonstrated that neither of the mutated receptors down-regulated following 24 h exposure to norepinephrine, whereas the wild-type receptor down-regulated to 65 ± 10% of the control.ConclusionsThese results indicate that a motif with four hydroxyl amino acid residues in an acidic environment is important for down-regulation of the opossum alpha-2C adrenergic receptor. Because these are potential GRK phosphorylation sites, we suggest that GRK phosphorylation may be involved in alpha-2C adrenergic receptor down-regulation.

Inhibition of gaba binding by pyridoxal and pyridoxal phosphate

Abstract 1. 1. GABA exerts its neuroinhibitory effects by binding to a specific receptor on the post-synaptic membrane. 2. 2. Since both GABA and vitamin B 6 have been implicated in convulsion, the effects of B 6 vitamers on Na-independent binding of GABA was investigated by incubating synaptic membrane suspensions for 5 min at 4°C in 1 ml of 50 mM Tris-citrate buffer containing 10 nM [ 3 H]GABA in the presence or absence of 1 mM GABA. 3. 3. Pyridoxal (0.1 mM or greater) and pyridoxal phosphate (1 mM or greater), but not pyridoxamine or pyridoxamine phosphate, inhibited specific [ 3 H]GABA binding non-competitively. 4. 4. This inhibition, which may involve the interaction between a carbonyl group and a lysine residue, may be used as a probe to further our understanding of the GABA receptor.

The Role or Non‐Role of ATPase Activation by Phenytoin in the Stabilization of Excitable Membranes

The role or non‐role of NaK ATPase, Mg ATP‐ase, and CaMg ATPase involvement in stabilization of excitable membranes by phenytoin is critically evaluated. There is no substantial evidence to indicate that the membrane‐stabilizing effect of phenytoin is due to activation of the NaK ATPase. Previous reports of activation of the NaK ATPase at low potassium and high sodium are probably not due to phenytoin but to a potassium contamination in the phenytoin solution. In vitro experiments do not provide any clear evidence of any alterations of NaK ATPase properties by phenytoin. However, one cannot rule out the possibility that phenytoin alters the efficiency of the sodium‐potassium pump. Likewise, the Ca ATPase is not inhibited by phenytoin. However, there is some evidence that the Mg ATPase in synaptic vesicles is substantially inhibited by phenytoin. There is substantial evidence indicating that phenytoin partially blocks passive diffusion of sodium into stimulated nerves. The mechanism by which phenytoin blocks sodium influx and the relationship of this effect to the drugs anticonvulsant action remain to be determined.

Adrenergic receptor genes: cDNA and genomic library construction.

A drenergic receptors mediate the central and peripheral actions of norepinephrine and epinephrine and are pharmacologically divided into three major types, alpha-1, alpha-2, and beta. These types are further subdivided into alpha-1A, alpha-1B, and alpha-1D; alpha-2A, alpha-2B, and alpha-2C; and beta-1, beta-2, and beta-3, respectively. Adrenergic receptor sequence information is presented in three tables with respect to species, subtype identification, GenBank accession number, source of the nucleic acid sequence, the presence of a 5′ flanking region upstream of the transcription start site, and the nucleotides defined as introns, coding regions, or 3′ and/or 5′ untranslated but transcribed (UTR) regions. Sequences have been assigned to adrenergic subtype categories based on sequence comparison using either FASTA or denogram of Pileup from the GCG sequence analysis program rather than as described in the author definition line. Sequence information found in these tables can be important for probe development for screening libraries for isolating adrenergic receptor genes from species other than the most common species. Where commercial libraries for specific tissue or species needs are not available, we have described construction of genomic cosmid libraries or PCR-based synthesis of a cDNA library using a microgram of RNA.

Catecholamine content of chromaffin granule ‘ghosts’ isolated from bovine adrenal glands

Studies on the mechanism of catecholamine transport into chromaffin granules is complicated by the release of endogenous catecholamines. To overcome this problem chromaffin granule ghosts have been prepared by many investigators by osmotic lysis of the granules which results in a loss of over 90% of the endogenous catecholamine. However, in the studies reported here, the resulting ghosts still contained 36 +/- 3.9 nmol epinephrine/mg of protein if they were lysed by passage through a Sephadex G-50 column preequilibrated with hypoosmotic media. This residual catecholamine was found to slowly diffuse out of the ghosts in a temperature-dependent process at a rate sufficient to interfere with kinetic analysis of catecholamine transport. Attempts to remove the endogenous catecholamine from the ghosts indicated that most of it could not be removed by further osmotic shock of freeze-thaw treatments, but that over 85% of it was released from the granules by incubating them at 30 degree C for 90 min or by dialysis with a 35 and 86% loss of rate of catecholamine transport into the ghosts, respectively. If the endogenous catecholamine was removed from chromaffin granule ghosts by preincubating them for 90 min at 30 degree C, the resulting ghosts transported catecholamine with a linear Lineweaver-Burk plot indicating a Km of 12 +/- 2 microM. In addition, the resulting ghosts did not leak catecholamines over a 10 min period at 30 degree C, and the transport of catecholamines was blocked by reserpine and enhanced with increasing pH from 6.0 to 8.5.