2. Academic Validation
  3. DREADD Agonist 21 Is an Effective Agonist for Muscarinic-Based DREADDs in Vitro and in Vivo

DREADD Agonist 21 Is an Effective Agonist for Muscarinic-Based DREADDs in Vitro and in Vivo

  • ACS Pharmacol Transl Sci. 2018 Sep 14;1(1):61-72. doi: 10.1021/acsptsci.8b00012.
Karen J Thompson 1,  Elham Khajehali 2,  Sophie J Bradley 1,  Jovana S Navarrete 3 4,  Xi Ping Huang 5,  Samuel Slocum 5,  Jian Jin 6,  Jing Liu 6,  Yan Xiong 6,  Reid H J Olsen 5,  Jeffrey F Diberto 5,  Kristen M Boyt 5,  Melanie M Pina 5,  Dipanwita Pati 5,  Colin Molloy 1,  Christoffer Bundgaard 7,  Patrick M Sexton 2,  Thomas L Kash 5,  Michael J Krashes 3 4,  Arthur Christopoulos 2,  Bryan L Roth 5,  Andrew B Tobin 1
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Centre for Translational Pharmacology, Institute of Molecular, Cell, and Systems Biology, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland G12 8QQ, United Kingdom.
  • 2 Drug Discovery Biology, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia.
  • 3 Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Obesity Branch, National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, United States.
  • 4 National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, United States.
  • 5 Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina NC2751, United States.
  • 6 Center for Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, Departments of Pharmacological Sciences and Oncological Sciences, Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY10029, United States.
  • 7 Neuroscience, Eli Lilly & Co., Erl Wood Manor, Windlesham, Surrey GU20 6PH, United Kingdom.
PMID: 30868140 DOI: 10.1021/acsptsci.8b00012
Abstract

Chemogenetic tools such as designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) are routinely used to modulate neuronal and non-neuronal signaling and activity in a relatively noninvasive manner. The first generation of DREADDs were templated from the human Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptor family and are relatively insensitive to the endogenous agonist acetylcholine but instead are activated by clozapine-N-oxide (CNO). Despite the undisputed success of CNO as an activator of muscarinic DREADDs, it has been known for some time that CNO is subject to a low rate of metabolic conversion to clozapine, raising the need for alternative chemical actuators of muscarinic-based DREADDs. Here we show that DREADD agonist 21 (C21) (11-(1-piperazinyl)-5H-dibenzo[b,e][1,4]diazepine) is a potent and selective agonist at both excitatory (hM3Dq) and inhibitory (hM4Di) DREADDs and has excellent bioavailability, pharmacokinetic properties, and brain penetrability. We also show that C21-induced activation of hM3Dq and hM4Di in vivo can modulate bidirectional feeding in defined circuits in mice. These results indicate that C21 represents an alternative to CNO for in vivo studies where metabolic conversion of CNO to clozapine is a concern.

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