Abstract
Rationale and objectives
WAY-100635 is a prototypical 5-HT1A receptor antagonist and has been used widely as a pharmacological probe to investigate the distribution and function of 5-HT1A receptors. Results from our studies suggested that WAY-100635 was potently inducing effects unrelated to its 5-HT1A receptor affinity. In the present work, we evaluated the in vitro pharmacology of this compound at two D2-like receptor subtypes.
Method
The functional properties and binding affinities of WAY-100635 were evaluated in HEK 293 cells stably expressing dopamine D2L or D4.4 receptors.
Results
Initial screens performed by the NIMH Psychoactive Drug Screening Program indicated that WAY-100635 displayed 940, 370, and 16 nM binding affinities at D2L, D3, and D4.2 receptors, respectively. Subsequent saturation analyses demonstrated that the K d of [3H]WAY-100635 at D4.2 receptors was 2.4 nM, only tenfold higher than 5-HT1A. WAY-100635 and its major metabolite, WAY-100634, were potent agonists in HEK-D4.4 cells (EC50=9.7±2.2 and 0.65±0.2 nM, respectively). WAY-100635 behaved as a full agonist, and WAY-100634 was a nearly full agonist. In HEK-D2L cells, WAY-100635 weakly antagonized the effects of 300 nM quinpirole. Subsequent radioligand binding studies confirmed that WAY-100635 possesses high affinity for D4.4 receptors but binds weakly to D2L receptors (3.3±0.6 and 420±11 nM, respectively).
Conclusions
This study demonstrates that WAY-100635 is not a “selective” 5-HT1A receptor antagonist, as previously reported, and conclusions drawn from studies that employed WAY-100635 as a selective 5-HT1A antagonist may need to be reevaluated.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by NIH grant DA02189 from NIDA (DEN), MH60397 from NIMH (VJW), the NIMH-PDSP, and KO2MH01366 (BLR). The work was conducted in a facility constructed with support from Research Facilities Improvement Program Grant Number C06-14499 from the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health. We also thank Stewart Frescas for the synthesis of WAY-100635, WAY-100634, and A-381393 used in this study.
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Chemel, B.R., Roth, B.L., Armbruster, B. et al. WAY-100635 is a potent dopamine D4 receptor agonist. Psychopharmacology 188, 244–251 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-006-0490-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-006-0490-4