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[3H]β-CIT: a radioligand for dopamine transporters in rat brain tissue

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Abstract

[3H]2-β-carbomethoxy-3-β-[4′-iodophenyl]tropane (β-CIT) was prepared and evaluated. With rat forebrain tissue, [3H]β-CIT showed high affinity for dopamine transporters (DAT), with selectivity for DAT over norepinephrine transporters, but not serotonin transporters, as well as DAT-stereoselectivity with β-CIT, amphetamine and methylphenidate. Affinity and selectivity for 53 compounds assayed with [3H]β-CIT and standard DAT radioligand [3H]GBR-12935 were highly correlated (r>0.95). [3H]β-CIT is proposed as a useful, high-affinity DAT radioprobe.

Introduction

Radioligands with high affinity or selectivity for dopamine transporters (DAT) include tritiated mazindol (Javitch et al., 1984), GBR-12935 (Andersen, 1987), phencyclidine analog N-(1-[1-benzo[b]thien-2-ylcyclohexyl])piperidine (BTCP) (Vignon et al., 1988) and phenyltropane congeners, including radioligands suitable for clinical neuroimaging Milius et al., 1991, Chally et al., 1996, Neumeyer et al., 1994, La Garza et al., 1999. Phenyltropanes include [3H]CFT (Madras et al., 1989) and [125I]R-2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(4-iodophenyl)tropane (β-CIT, RTI-55) Boja et al., 1991, Innis et al., 1991. Since [3H]β-CIT is not available, we prepared and characterized it, finding close pharmacological similarity to the standard DAT radioligand [3H]GBR-12935, and a very high signal-to-noise ratio in radiotransporter binding and autoradiographic experiments.

Section snippets

Materials

Ten phenyltropanes were prepared (Neumeyer et al., 1994) at Research Biochemicals International (RBI, Natick MA): β-CIT, its precursor (nor-β-CIT), enantiomer (1S)-β-CIT, 3,4-diiodophenyl (CIIT), 4-fluorophenyl-(CFT) and 4-chlorophenyl congeners (CClT), as well as N-2-fluoroethyl-CIT (FE-CIT), N-3-fluropropyl-CIT (FP-CIT), 2β-carboisopropoxy-CIT (CIT-IP), and N-3-fluoropropyl-2β-carboisopropoxy (FP-CIT-IP) derivatives. [N-3H-methyl]β-CIT (87 Ci/mmol) was prepared from nor-β-CIT at New England

Binding of [3H]β-CIT with rat striatal homogenates

Striatal binding of [3H]β-CIT was linear vs. time (1–30 min, saturating by 45 min at 20°C), and linearly dependent on tissue-protein (to ±5-times standard assay conditions equivalent to 1.5 mg fresh striatum). Unlabeled β-CIT inhibited [3H]β-CIT binding with striatal homogenates monophasically (slope function, 0.99). Kd of [3H]β-CIT by Scatchard and kinetic analyses averaged 230 pM. At standard assay C=300 pM [3H]β-CIT, specific binding defined with 1 μM GBR-12909 averaged 92%.

Pharmacology of binding of [3H]β-CIT compared with [3H]GBR-12935

Potency (Ki, nM)

Discussion

Other than [3H]β-CIT, the only other commercially available tritiated-phenyltropane for labeling DAT is [3H]CFT, studied with primate brain tissue (Madras et al., 1989). Unlabeled β-CIT showed 57- and 15-fold higher affinity than CFT vs. [3H]β-CIT and [3H]GBR-12935 (Table 1). [3H]β-CIT was selective for DAT sites in autoradiographs of corpus striatum: 90% of total binding was displaced by the dissimilar but very potent DAT ligand, GBR-12909 (Table 1). The little [3H]β-CIT bound in extrastriatal

Acknowledgements

Supported by grants from NIH MH-19905, MH-34006, MH-47370, MH-49533, Bruce J. Anderson Foundation, funds of the McLean Private Donors Neuropharmacology Research Fund; and Saal van Zwanenbergstichtung. Drug substances were generously donated by manufacturers listed above.

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