The novel antipsychotic aripiprazole requires high (490%) striatal D 2 receptor occupancy (D 2 RO) to be clinically active, but despite its high D 2 RO it does not show extrapyramidal symptoms. While most antipsychotics are active at nearly 65% D 2 RO, they show motor side effects when D 2 RO exceeds 80%. We investigated this discrepancy between D 2 RO, 5HT 2 receptor occupancy (5-HT 2 RO) and in vivo functional activity of aripiprazole in comparison to haloperidol (typical) and risperidone (atypical) in animal models. All three drugs showed dose-dependent D 2 RO. While risperidone clearly showed higher 5-HT 2 RO than D 2 RO, aripiprazole and haloperidol showed higher D 2 RO than 5-HT 2 RO at all doses. Haloperidol and risperidone induced catalepsy at doses producing 480% D 2 RO, while aripiprazole despite higher D 2 RO (490%) induced no catalepsy. Haloperidol and risperidone's ED 50 values for inhibition of conditioned avoidance response (CAR) and amphetamine-induced locomotor activity (AIL) corresponded to B60% D 2 RO. In contrast, aripiprazole showed a significant dissociation; while it blocked AIL at similar D 2 RO, a 23-fold higher dose (86% D 2 RO) was required to inhibit CAR. FOS expression in shell region of the nucleus accumbens was significant for all drugs at D 2 ROs that were effective in CAR. However, in the core region of the nucleus accumbens and dorsolateral striatum, aripiprazole differed from the others in that despite high D 2 RO it induced low FOS. Haloperidol and risperidone showed dose/occupancy-dependent prolactin elevations, while aripiprazole did not. Across models, haloperidol and risperidone show similar occupancy-functional antagonism of the D 2 system, while aripiprazole shows a clear dissociation. Partial agonism of aripiprazole offers a good explanation for this dissociation and provides a framework for understanding occupancy-functional relationships of partial D 2 agonist antipsychotics.

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Hence, we evaluated in vivo D 2 occupancy of these agents in rats and correlated it to observed effects in a series of behavioral, neurochemical, and endocrine models relevant to the dopamine system and antipsychotic effect. Both (Ϫ)-OSU6162 and ACR16 showed robust dose-dependent striatal D 2 occupancy with ED 50 values of 5.27 and 18.99 mg/kg s.c., respectively, and functional assays showed no partial agonism. Over an occupancy range of 37 to 87% (3-60 mg/kg) for (Ϫ)-OSU6162 and 35 to 74% (10 -60 mg/kg) for ACR16, we observed both inhibitory (amphetamine-induced locomotor activity) and stimulatory effects (in habituated rats). Haloperidol, over a similar occupancy range (33-78%), potently inhibited psychostimulant activity and induced catalepsy, but it failed to activate habituated animals. In the conditioned avoidance response assay, ACR16 was clearly more efficacious than (Ϫ)-OSU6162. In addition, both these compounds demonstrated significant preferential Fos induction in the nucleus accumbens compared with the dorsolateral striatum, a strong predictor of atypical antipsychotic efficacy. The results suggest that dopamine stabilizers exhibit locomotor stabilizing as well as antipsychoticlike effects, with low motor side effect liability, in a dose range that corresponds to high D 2 in vivo occupancy.

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