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A new series of H3 receptor antagonists was discovered with nanomolar and subnanomolar affinities at human and rat H3 receptors. Starting from an earlier, more structurally limited series of benzofurans, the present series of compounds demonstrated increased structural variety and flexibility with greater in vitro potency. One compound in particular, {2-[2-(2-(R)-methylpyrrolidin-1-yl)ethyl]benzofuran-5-yl}(5-nitropyridin-2-yl)amine (7h), gave the best binding potency (human Ki of 0.05 nM, rat Ki of 0.11 nM), which represented a 9-fold (in human) and an 11-fold (in rat) improvement over ABT-239 (compound 5), a compound previously reported to have excellent in vitro potency and in vivo efficacy. The synthesis, SAR of the H3 binding affinities, in vitro assay for phospholipidosis, and pharmacokinetic properties of the new compounds are described.

H3 receptor antagonists based on a 2-aminoethylbenzofuran skeleton have been discovered, which are potent in vitro at human and rat H3 receptors, with Ki values of 0.1−5.8 nM. Analogues were discovered with potent (0.01−1 mg/kg) cognition and attention enhancing properties in animal models. One compound in particular, 4-(2-[2-(2(R)-methylpyrrolidin-1-yl)ethyl]benzofuran-5-yl)benzonitrile (ABT-239), combined potent and selective H3 receptor antagonism and excellent pharmacokinetic and metabolic properties across species, with full efficacy in two behavioral models:  a five-trial inhibitory avoidance acquisition model in rat pups at 0.1 mg/kg and a social recognition memory model in adult rats at 0.01 mg/kg. Furthermore, this compound did not stimulate locomotor activity and showed high selectivity for the induction of behavioral efficacy versus central nervous system based side effects. The potency and selectivity of this compound and of analogues from this class support the potential of H3 receptor antagonists for the treatment of cognitive dysfunction.

Structure−activity studies were performed on the α1A-adrenoceptor (AR) selective agonist N-[5-(1H-imidazol-4-yl)-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-1-naphthalenyl]methanesulfonamide (4). Compounds were evaluated for binding activity at the α1A, α1b, α1d, α2a, and α2B subtypes. Functional activity in tissues containing the α1A (rabbit urethra), α1B (rat spleen), α1D (rat aorta), and α2A (rat prostatic vas deferens) was also evaluated. A dog in vivo model simultaneously measuring intraurethral pressure (IUP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) was used to assess the uroselectivity of the compounds. Many of the compounds that were highly selective in vitro for the α1A-AR subtype were also more uroselective in vivo for increasing IUP over MAP than the nonselective α1-agonists phenylpropanolamine (PPA) (1) and ST-1059 (2, the active metabolite of midodrine), supporting the hypothesis that greater α1A selectivity would reduce cardiovascular side effects. However, the data also support a prominent role of the α1A-AR subtype in the control of MAP.

In SK-N-MC human neuroblastoma cells, the cAMP response to 10 nM isoproterenol (ISO) is mediated primarily by beta 1-adrenergic receptors. However, responses to higher concentrations of ISO (100-1000 nM) were only weakly blocked by beta 1- and beta 2-selective antagonists. When beta 1 receptors were blocked with 10 microM CGP 20712A, catecholamines still maximally activated cAMP accumulation, with only small decreases in potency. In the presence of CGP 20712A, beta blockers inhibited the response to ISO stereoselectively but with relatively low potencies. Pindolol derivatives were partial agonists with low potencies, and the atypical agonist BRL 37344 was a partial agonist with an intermediate potency. All binding sites in these cells labeled by 125I-cyanopindolol were of the beta 1 subtype. Nuclease protection assays indicated that SK-N-MC cells contain mRNA for both the human beta 1- and beta 3-adrenergic receptors, with the beta 3 subtype mRNA being expressed 25-50% more abundantly than that for the beta 1 subtype. Northern blot hybridizations showed the presence of two beta 3 mRNA transcripts of 3.1 and 2.4 kilobases. These results suggest that beta 1- and atypical beta-adrenergic receptors coexist in these cells and cause redundant increases in cAMP formation. Although molecular approaches suggest that the atypical subtype is the beta 3, the observed drug specificity differs from that reported for the expressed recombinant human beta 3 receptor.

We examined the role of beta 1- and beta 2-adrenergic receptor (AR) density and ratio in catecholamine-stimulated cAMP responses in rat C6 glioma cells. These cells, which normally express both subtypes, were stably transfected with an isopropylthio-beta-D-galactoside-inducible vector containing either beta 1AR or beta 2AR coding sequences, and receptor expression was controlled by the time and concentration of isopropylthio-beta-D-galactoside exposure. Induction of the dominant beta 1AR subtype increased the potencies of isoproterenol (ISO) and other agonists in stimulating cAMP accumulation by 20-40-fold without changing maximal response. Induction of beta 2AR expression caused 7-13-fold increases in the potency of ISO, epinephrine, and zinterol, but not of norepinephrine, and a 20-40% loss in maximal response to all agonists. Selective antagonists showed that both subtypes contributed in a nonadditive manner in the response to ISO under different conditions. After beta 2AR induction, the effects of ISO were not blocked by the beta 1-selective antagonist CGP 20712A but were shifted 100-fold to the right by the beta 2-selective antagonist ICI 118,551. However, in the presence of ICI 118,551, CGP 20712A caused an additional 100-fold decrease in ISO potency, and Schild analysis revealed complex interactions between the two subtypes. Each antagonist alone caused smaller shifts to the right in the dose-response curve to NE and, when present simultaneously, completely abolished the NE response. We conclude that beta 1ARs and beta 2ARs have different efficiencies in activating cAMP accumulation in C6 glioma cells. Activation of coexisting subtypes results in complex and sometimes synergistic interactions between the two subtypes, which vary with agonist concentration, selectivity, subtype density, and ratio.

We compared the efficiencies with which human alpha 1-adrenergic receptor (AR) subtypes activate inositol phosphate (InsP) formation and increase intracellular Ca2+ in transfected cell lines. Expression of human alpha 1a-, alpha 1b-, and alpha 1d-AR cDNAs under the repressible control of anhydrotetracycline in human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells, which normally express no alpha 1-ARs, was used to compare responses to norepinephrine (NE) at different receptor densities. Maximal NE-stimulated InsP formation was found to increase with increasing density of each subtype, whereas basal levels and responses to sodium fluoride did not change. A comparison of multiple subclones over equivalent ranges of receptor expression showed that activation of each subtype resulted in different maximal responses (alpha 1a > alpha 1b > alpha 1d) in HEK 293 cells. Analogous studies were carried out in human SK-N-MC cells, which normally express low levels of all three alpha 1-AR subtypes, using an isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactoside-inducible expression system. Induction with isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactoside increased the density of individual alpha 1-AR subtypes by 4-6-fold over the level of endogenous expression. Increased expression of each of these subtypes in SK-N-MC cells did not alter the EC50 value for NE in stimulating InsP formation or releasing [Ca2+]i but did increase maximal responses to NE. Similar to our findings in HEK 293 cells, a comparison of responses at similar expression levels in SK-N-MC cells showed different maximal responses stimulated by each subtype, for both InsP (alpha 1a > alpha 1b > or = alpha 1d) and [Ca2+]i (alpha 1a > alpha 1b > alpha 1d) responses. These studies show that agonist-occupied human alpha 1-AR subtypes have different efficiencies in activating phospholipase C in human cell lines. In both HEK 293 and SK-N-MC cells, alpha 1a-ARs couple most efficiently, whereas alpha 1d-ARs couple very poorly.

We have cloned the human alpha 1d-adrenergic receptor (AR) and compared the pharmacological properties of the three recombinant human alpha 1-AR subtypes in SK-N-MC cells. SK-N-MC cells natively express a mixture of alpha 1-AR subtypes, and the use of an inducible expression system allowed us to directly compare the recombinant and native subtypes without concern for cell-specific processing or microenvironment. The human alpha 1d-AR was expressed from a cDNA/gene fusion construct cloned from human SK-N-MC cell cDNA and human genomic libraries. This receptor is deduced to contain 572 amino acids with 98% identity to the rat alpha 1d-AR in the transmembrane domains and, when expressed in human embryonic kidney 293 cells, has alpha 1-AR binding properties similar to those of the rat alpha 1d-AR. Norepinephrine increased inositol phosphate formation and mobilized intracellular Ca2+ in transfected 293 cells. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis of the three cloned human subtypes (alpha 1a, alpha 1b, and alpha 1d) in mRNA from SK-N-MC cells, which natively express alpha 1A- and alpha 1B-like pharmacology, showed abundant alpha 1a and alpha 1d but fewer alpha 1b transcripts. The three human clones were expressed in SK-N-MC cells using isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactoside-inducible vectors. Upon induction, alpha 1-AR density was increased with the recombinant subtype comprising 67-80% of total alpha 1-ARs. Inhibition curves for (+)-niguldipine and 5-methylurapidil fit best to a two-site model in uninduced cells, indicating significant receptor heterogeneity. Isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactoside induction altered the potencies of both compounds, causing most inhibition curves to fit best to a one-site model. (+)-Niguldipine was 100-fold more potent at the alpha 1a-AR than at alpha 1b- or alpha 1d-ARs, whereas 5-methylurapidil had similar potencies at alpha 1a- and alpha 1d-ARs and about 10-fold lower affinity at the alpha 1b-AR. We conclude that the complex alpha 1A- and alpha 1B-like pharmacology observed in native SK-N-MC cells is due to expression of all three subtypes in different proportions, independently of cell-specific processing or environmental factors, and that the alpha 1a-AR cDNA encodes the pharmacologically defined alpha 1A subtype.

We characterized norepinephrine (NE)-activated Ca2+ influx in the rat medullary thyroid carcinoma (rMTC) 6-23 cell line using fura-2. NE caused a sustained increase in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i), which was completely reversed by addition of nifedipine or removal of extracellular Ca2+. Bay K8644, KCl-induced depolarization, and ATP also increased [Ca2+]i in rMTC 6-23 cells, effects that were also reversed by nifedipine. Release of intracellular Ca2+ by thapsigargin was not blocked by nifedipine, and NE caused nifedipine-sensitive increases in [Ca2+]i even in the presence of thapsigargin. NE-stimulated increases in [Ca2+]i were mimicked by the alpha 1-adrenergic receptor (AR) agonist phenylephrine but not by the beta-AR agonist isoproterenol. The response to NE was blocked by the alpha-AR antagonist phentolamine and by pretreatment with the alpha 1B-selective alkylating agent chloroethylclonidine (CEC) but was not blocked by alpha 1A-selective concentrations of the subtype-selective antagonist 5-methylurapidil. alpha 1-AR binding sites labeled by 125I-BE 2254 in membranes from this cell line were highly sensitive to inactivation by CEC (> 80%), and competition with subtype-selective antagonists suggested the presence of a homogeneous population of alpha 1B-ARs. NE, epinephrine, and phenylephrine, but not KCl, ATP, or isoproterenol, caused large increases in [3H]inositol phosphate (InsP) formation in these cells. This [3H]InsP response was greatly reduced by CEC pretreatment, and competitive antagonists blocked this response with an alpha 1B-like pharmacology. Northern blots of poly(A)+ RNA from rMTC 6-23 cells showed single transcripts hybridizing to the hamster alpha 1B-AR (2.2-kilo-base) and less prominently to the rat alpha 1D-AR (4.0-kilobase) cDNAs but no detectable hybridization to the bovine alpha 1C-AR cDNA. The phospholipase C inhibitor U-73122 reduced the [3H] InsP response to NE in a concentration-dependent manner but had little or no effect on the NE-induced increases in [Ca2+]i. Phorbol myristate acetate also increased [Ca2+]i in rMTC 6-23 cells, although this response was not blocked by nifedipine. We conclude that activation of alpha 1B-like ARs (including possibly both alpha 1B- and alpha 1D-ARs) increases voltage-dependent Ca2+ influx in rat rMTC 6-23 cells. This effect appears to be independent of release of intracellular Ca2+, activation of phospholipase C, and/or activation of protein kinase C. This cell line should be very useful in defining the mechanisms underlying the known effects of alpha 1-ARs on voltage-gated Ca2+ influx, which plays an important functional role in vascular smooth muscle.

The potencies and intrinsic activities of agonists in activating cloned alpha 1-adrenergic receptor (AR) subtypes were compared. The hamster alpha 1B-, bovine alpha 1C-, or rat alpha 1A/D-ARs were expressed at high levels in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. Catecholamines and phenylethylamines, but not lower efficacy agonists, were more potent in inhibiting radioligand binding to the expressed alpha 1A/D subtype than to the alpha 1B or alpha 1C subtypes; this selectivity remained in the presence of different buffers, nucleotides, and cations. Activation of all three subtypes caused substantial increases in [3H]inositol phosphate formation in cells grown in 96-well plates. Pretreatment with phenoxybenzamine decreased maximal responses to norepinephrine (NE) with only small decreases in apparent potency, suggesting similar small receptor reserves for all three subtypes. The catecholamines NE, epinephrine, and 6-fluoro-NE were full agonists with similar potencies at the three subtypes; alpha-methyl-NE was also a full agonist but was about 20-fold less potent at alpha 1B-ARs than at alpha 1C- or alpha 1A/D-ARs. Phenylephrine had similar potencies at all three subtypes but gave a submaximal response at alpha 1B-ARs. Methoxamine was a full agonist at alpha 1C- and alpha 1A/D-ARs, with about 20-fold greater potency at the alpha 1C subtype, but showed lower intrinsic activity at alpha 1B-ARs. A number of imidazolines, amidephrine, and SKF 89748 had substantial intrinsic activity at alpha 1C-ARs but little or no intrinsic activity at the other two subtypes. We conclude that the potencies of many agonists in competing for radioligand binding sites are related to their potencies in activating functional responses but that this relationship is not the same for all subtypes. NE and epinephrine activate all three cloned alpha 1-AR subtypes with similar potencies and intrinsic activities, but many widely used agonists show significant selectivity for different alpha 1-AR subtypes.

We compared the alpha 1-adrenergic receptor subtypes in two neuronal cell lines, SK-N-MC (human neuroepithelioma) and NB41A3 (murine neuroblastoma). 125I-BE 2254 labeled alpha 1-adrenergic receptor binding sites in membranes from both cell lines. Pretreatment with the alpha 1B-selective alkylating agent chloroethylclonidine (CEC) completely eliminated these binding sites in NB41A3 cells but caused only a 50% loss in SK-N-MC cells. Displacement with subtype-selective antagonists suggested that NB41A3 cells express only the alpha 1B subtype, whereas SK-N-MC cells express a pharmacologically heterogeneous receptor population, including both alpha 1A and alpha 1B subtypes. Norepinephrine increased [3H] inositol phosphate formation in both cell lines, but with different sensitivities to pertussis toxin and the presence of extracellular Ca2+. CEC pretreatment eliminated this response in NB41A3 cells but caused a maximal 42% reduction in SK-N-MC cells. Use of subtype-selective antagonists showed that the [3H]inositol phosphate response involved only the alpha 1B subtype in NB41A3 cells but a combination of subtypes in SK-N-MC cells. Norepinephrine induced both transient and sustained increases in intracellular Ca2+ concentrations in both cell lines, as measured with fura-2. CEC pretreatment abolished the Ca2+ response in NB41A3 cells but had little effect in SK-N-MC cells. In SK-N-MC cells the Ca2+ response was potently blocked by alpha 1A-selective antagonists. Chelation of extracellular Ca2+ eliminated the sustained component of the Ca2+ signal in both cell lines. Poly(A)+ RNA from NB41A3, DDT1MF-2, BC3H1, and MDCK-D1 cell lines showed one or more prominent transcripts (2.2-4.2 kilobases) that strongly hybridized to the hamster alpha 1B cDNA probe but not to the bovine alpha 1C or rat alpha 1D cDNA probes. Poly(A)+ RNA from SK-N-MC cells showed multiple transcripts (1.3-5.6 kilobases) that hybridized to both hamster alpha 1B and rat alpha 1D but not bovine alpha 1C cDNA probes. We conclude that NB41A3 cells contain exclusively alpha 1B-adrenergic receptors linked to inositol phosphate formation and mobilization of intracellular Ca2+, whereas at least two alpha 1-adrenergic receptor forms, which resemble the alpha 1A and alpha 1B subtypes, coexist in SK-N-MC cells. The CEC-insensitive alpha 1A-like subtype in SK-N-MC cells is capable of increasing inositol phosphate formation and mobilizing intracellular Ca2+.

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