Interactions of glycine and strychnine with their receptor recognition sites in mouse spinal cord

Interactions between the inhibitory neurotransmitter glycine and its receptor antagonist strychnine have been studied in mouse spinal cord membranes and both agents employed to protect against residue selective protein modifying reagents in order to identify contact residues for ligand binding. Glycine was found to behave as a full competitive inhibitor of [3H]-strychnine binding, provided that precautions were taken to prevent radioligand binding to the glass-fibre filters used to terminate the assays. Hill coefficients for the glycine inhibition of [3H]-strychnine binding were not significantly different from one, indicating a lack of cooperative interactions. For the protection experiments, N-bromosuccinimide, tetranitromethane, diethylpyrocarbonate and 2,3-butanedione were used under conditions selective for tryptophan, tyrosine, histidine and arginine residues, respectively. Of these reagents, N-bromosuccinimide, tetranitromethane and diethylpyrocarbonate caused a decrease in total [3H]-strychnine binding without affecting the ability of unlabelled strychnine to compete. In contrast, the same reagents disrupted the ability of glycine to inhibit [3H]-strychnine binding. The presence of either excess glycine (10(-2) M) or strychnine (10(-4) M) during the above treatments was found to prevent the decrease in total and strychnine-specific [3H]-strychnine binding. However, only in the case of diethylpyrocarbonate treatment were both agonist and antagonist able to protect against the loss of glycine-specific [3H]-strychnine binding. The reagent 2,3-butanedione caused an increase in total and strychnine-specific [3H]-strychnine binding (which we have shown elsewhere to be at a site unrelated to the inhibitory glycine receptor). When the above protein modifying reagents were applied under the same conditions to specific strychnine binding antibodies, all four caused significant decreases in subsequent [3H]-strychnine binding. Strychnine was found to afford significant protection of the antibodies against N-bromosuccinimide, tetranitromethane and 2,3-butanedione, but not against diethylpyrocarbonate. Our results suggest that glycine and strychnine compete at overlapping but conformationally distinct sites on the receptor. Tyrosine, tryptophan, histidine and arginine residues are implicated as strychnine contact residues with a shared role for histidine in the recognition of glycine.

Polyclonal antibodies to the glycine receptor antagonist strychnine

Polyclonal antibodies have been raised in rabbits against the glycine receptor antagonist strychnine, coupled through a 2-amino substituent to the antigenic protein key-hole limpet haemocyanin. Strychnine binding of the predominantly immunoglobulin G (IgG) class of antibodies was measured by incubation with [3H]strychnine, followed by adsorption of IgG onto Staphylococcus aureus cells and filtration through glass-fibre filters under vacuum. Only strychnine and structurally related alkaloids or derivatives were able to inhibit [3H]strychnine binding to the IgG. A significant rank correlation was found between the potencies of these compounds to inhibit [3H]strychnine binding to the antibodies and to the glycine receptor in mouse spinal cord membranes. In contrast, preincubation of strychnine antibodies with a variety of ligands at other neurotransmitter, drug, or hormone receptors in the CNS (at 10(-4) M) failed to inhibit binding significantly. The failure of glycine to inhibit strychnine antibody binding is consistent with previous suggestions that the recognition sites for this amino acid on the CNS receptor may be conformationally distinct from those for the antagonist alkaloid. Strychnine antibodies may now help in the identification and purification of possible endogenous ligands at this alkaloid binding site in the CNS.