Rat thalamic α4β2 neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor occupancy assay using LC–MS/MS

Autor: Gopinadh Bhyrapuneni, Devender Reddy Ajjala, Vishwottam Kandikere, Ramakrishna Nirogi, Nageswararao Muddana, Ramanatha Saralaya
Rok vydání: 2012
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods. 65:136-141
ISSN: 1056-8719
Popis: Introduction In vivo brain receptor occupancy has been the key assay in driving preclinical drug discovery program and there is a need to hasten this screening step. Radiolabeled methods, which are time consuming and expensive, are most widely employed to measure receptor occupancy. Thus we sought to develop and validate an alternative novel approach for measuring rat brain α 4 β 2 neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor occupancy using high performance liquid chromatography combined with tandem mass spectrometric detector (LC–MS/MS). Methods Tracer optimization studies like in vivo dose and time dependent brain regional distribution; saturation binding and blocking study with nicotine and atropine were carried out for ZW-104 in rats. Assay validity was tested by pretreatment with potent α 4 β 2 ligands; TC-1734, cytisine, ABT-089, ABT-594 and A-366833. Receptor occupancy along with plasma and brain exposure levels of α 4 β 2 ligand was measured in the same set of animals. Results The regional distribution of ZW-104 in rat was found to be, thalamus > frontal cortex > striatum > hippocampus > cerebellum, and is in accordance with the distribution and regional densities of α 4 β 2 nAChRs measured using [ 18 F]ZW-104 in mice and baboons. Pretreatment with nicotine and α 4 β 2 ligands dose dependently reduced the binding of ZW-104 in the thalamus. Non-nicotinic antagonist atropine did not alter the binding of ZW-104 in the thalamus, indicating the tracer specificity. The ED 50 values calculated for occupancy were found to be 3.01, 0.83, 14.81, 0.001 and 0.11 mg/kg for TC-1734, cytisine, ABT-089, ABT-594, and A-366833, respectively. Discussion These findings demonstrate that non-radiolabeled ZW-104 is suitable for determining the α 4 β 2 receptor occupancy in rat brain. The LC–MS/MS based receptor occupancy assay is a rapid method and allows the generation of occupancy data along with the brain and plasma concentration in the same group of animals.
Databáze: OpenAIRE