The characterization and classification of receptors

Does somatostatin have a role to play in migraine headache?

Migraine is a condition without apparent pathology. Its cardinal symptom is the prolonged excruciating headache. Theories about this pain have posited pathologies which run the gamut from neural to vascular to neurovascular, but no observations have detected a plausible pathology. We believe that no pathology can be found for migraine headache because none exists. Migraine is not driven by pathology - it is driven by neural events produced by triggers - or simply by neural noise- noise that has crossed a critical threshold. If these ideas are true, how does the pain arise? We hypothesise that migraine headache is a consequence of withdrawal of descending pain control, produced by "noise" in the cerebral cortex. Nevertheless, there has to be a neural circuit to transform cortical noise to withdrawal of pain control. In our hypothesis, this neural circuit extends from the cortex, synapses in two brainstem nuclei (the periaqueductal gray matter and the raphe magnus nucleus) and ultimately reaches the first synapse of the trigeminal sensory system. The second stage of this circuit uses serotonin (5HT) as a neurotransmitter, but the neuronal projection from the cortex to the brainstem seems to involve relatively uncommon neurotransmitters. We believe that one of these is somatostatin (SST). Temporal changes in levels of circulating SST mirror the temporal changes in the incidence of migraine, particularly in women. The SST₂ receptor agonist octreotide has been used with some success in migraine and cluster headache. A cortical to PAG/NRM neural projection certainly exists and we briefly review the anatomical and neurophysiological evidence for it and provide preliminary evidence that SST may the critical neurotransmitter in this pathway. We therefore suggest that the withdrawal of descending tone in SST-containing neurons, might create a false pain signal and hence the headache of migraine.

Novel modified adenosine 5'-triphosphate analogues pharmacologically characterized in human embryonic kidney 293 cells highly expressing rat brain P2Y(1) receptor: Biotinylated analogue potentially suitable for specific P2Y(1) receptor isolation

Rat brain P2Y(1) (rP2Y(1)) receptor-transfected human embryonic kidney cells (HEK 293) were recently shown to have enhanced reactivity to both ATP and ADP (Vöhringer C, Schäfer R, Reiser G. Biochem Pharmacol 2000;59:791-800). Here, we demonstrated the usefulness of this cell line as a system for further studying novel adenine nucleotide analogues (Halbfinger et al. J Med Chem 1999;42:5325-37) and for the biochemical characterization of the P2Y(1) receptor. By measurement of intracellular Ca(2+) release, for 2-butylthio-, 2-butylamino-, and 2-butyloxy-ATP (2-BuS-, 2-BuNH-, 2-BuO-ATP), EC(50) values of 1.3, 5, and 60 nM were determined, markedly lower than the value for ATP (130 nM). The EC(50) for 2-BuSADP was 1.1 nM. The corresponding 8-substituted ATP analogues showed a substantially lower potency than ATP (ATP > 8-BuSATP > 8-BuNHATP approximately 8-BuOATP). AMP induced intracellular Ca(2+) release with a very low potency; 2- and 8-substitutions on AMP caused no significant potency shift, except for 2-BuSAMP (EC(50) = 180 nM). Another new P2Y receptor probe, 2-[(6-biotinylamido)-hexylthio]ATP, was 22-fold more potent than ATP (EC(50) = 6 nM), revealing that even more bulky substituents linked to the C-2 position bind with high affinity at the P2Y(1) receptor. This biotinylated probe was successfully used for the enrichment of the P2Y(1) receptor tagged with green fluorescent protein from a crude membrane fraction. This one-step enrichment provides a substantial advance for P2Y(1) receptor purification. Thus, human embryonic kidney 293 cells stably transfected with the rP2Y(1) receptor represent a powerful model system for pharmacological characterization of the P2Y(1) receptor, circumventing problems associated with natural systems. They provide a means for the development of P2Y(1) ligands of high potency and a good source for obtaining purified P2Y(1) receptor.