Presynaptic nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) on striatal synaptosomes stimulate dopamine release. Partial inhibition by the alpha3beta2-selective alpha-conotoxin-MII indicates heterogeneity of presynaptic nAChRs on dopamine terminals. We have used this alpha-conotoxin and UB-165, a novel hybrid of epibatidine and anatoxin-a, to address the hypothesis that the alpha-conotoxin-MII-insensitive subtype is composed of alpha4 and beta2 subunits. UB-165 shows intermediate potency, compared with the parent molecules, at alpha4beta2* and alpha3-containing binding sites, and resembles epibatidine in its high discrimination of these sites over alpha7-type and muscle binding sites. (+/-)-Epibatidine, (+/-)-anatoxin-a, and (+/-)-UB-165 stimulated [(3)H]-dopamine release from striatal synaptosomes with EC(50) values of 2.4, 134, and 88 nM, and relative efficacies of 1:0.4:0.2, respectively. alpha-Conotoxin-MII inhibited release evoked by these agonists by 48, 56, and 88%, respectively, suggesting that (+/-)-UB-165 is a very poor agonist at the alpha-conotoxin-MII-insensitive nAChR subtype. In assays of (86)Rb(+) efflux from thalamic synaptosomes, a model of an alpha4beta2* nAChR response, (+/-)-UB-165 was a very weak partial agonist; the low efficacy of (+/-)-UB-165 at alpha4beta2 nAChR was confirmed in Xenopus oocytes expressing various combinations of human nAChR subunits. In contrast, (+/-)-UB-165 and (+/-)-anatoxin-a were similarly efficacious and similarly sensitive to alpha-conotoxin-MII in increasing intracellular Ca(2+) in SH-SY5Y cells, a functional assay for native alpha3-containing nAChR. These data support the involvement of alpha4beta2* nAChR in the presynaptic modulation of striatal dopamine release and illustrate the utility of exploiting a novel partial agonist, together with a selective antagonist, to dissect the functional roles of nAChR subtypes in the brain.

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We explore the significance of pi-cation interactions in the binding of ligands to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Specifically, the Austin method of semiempirical molecular orbital theory is utilized to estimate the interaction of aromatic amino acid side chains with the cation-containing heterocyclic ring fragments of nicotinic ligands. Variational interaction energies (E(i)) of side chain-ligand fragment pairs are shown to be distance-dependent and follow a Morse-like potential function. The tryptophan side chain shows the most pronounced interaction with the cation fragments, followed by tyrosine and phenylalanine. For a given side chain, cationic fragments exhibit characteristically different E(i) profiles, with the azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane fragment of the potent nicotinic ligand epibatidine eliciting the greatest interaction energy of the study set. Most significantly, the minimum energy values calculated for numerous fragments correlate with the binding affinity of the parent ligands- we show this to be the case for heteropentameric (alpha4beta2) and homopentameric (alpha7) nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subtypes. Furthermore, intermolecular distances corresponding to the Morse-like potential minimum also correlate with high-affinity binding. A number of parallel calculations were conducted at the Hartree-Fock 6-31G ab initio level of theory in an effort to substantiate these findings.

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(+/-)-UB-165 (1) is a potent neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) ligand, which displays functional selectivity between nAChR subtypes. Using UB-165 as a lead structure, two classes of racemic ligands were synthesized and assessed in binding assays for three major nAChR subtypes (alpha4beta2, alpha3beta4, and alpha7). The first class of compounds comprises the three pyridine isomers 4-6, corresponding to the 3-, 2-, and 4-substituted pyridine isomers, respectively. Deschloro UB-165 (4) displayed a 2-3-fold decrease in affinity at alpha4beta2 and alpha3beta4 nAChR subtypes, as compared with (+/-)-UB-165, while at the alpha7 subtype a 31-fold increase in affinity was observed. At each of the nAChR subtypes, high affinity binding was dependent on the presence of a 3-substituted pyridine, and the other isomers, 5 and 6, resulted in marked decreases in binding affinities. The second class of compounds is based on replacing the pyridyl unit of 1 with a diazine moiety, giving pyridazine (7), pyrimidine (8), and pyrazine (9), which retain the "3-pyridyl" substructure. Modest reductions in binding affinity were observed for all of the diazine ligands at all nAChR subtypes, with the exception of 7, which retained potency comparable to that of 4 in binding to alpha7 nAChR. In functional assays at the alpha3beta4 nAChR, all analogues 4-9 were less potent, as compared with 1, and the rank order of functional potencies correlated with that of binding potencies. Computational studies indicate that the 3-substituted pyridine 4 and 2-substituted pyridine 5, as well as the diazine analogues 7-9, all conform to a distance-based pharmacophore model recently proposed for the alpha4beta2 receptor. However, the nicotinic potencies of these ligands vary considerably and because 5 lacks appreciable nicotinic activity, it is clear that further refinements of this model are necessary in order to describe adequately the structural and electronic demands associated with this nAChR subtype. This rational series of compounds based on UB-165 presents a systematic approach to defining subtype specific pharmacophores.