Effects of the selective angiotensin II receptor antagonists losartan and PD123177 in animal models of anxiety and memory.

There is increasing interest in the potential functional role of the octapeptide angiotensin II (AII) in psychiatric and cognitive disorders. The novel angiotensin II (AII) receptor antagonists, losartan and PD123177, selective for the AT1 and AT2 receptor subtypes respectively, constitute important pharmacological tools for the assessment of the behavioural consequences of modulation of AII function. The present series of studies investigated the effects of each compound in two animal models of anxiety, the rat elevated zero-maze and mouse light/dark box, and two models of working memory in the rat, the operant delayed matching to position (DMTP) task and the spatial reinforced alternation test in the T-maze. Our data indicate that both compounds (0.01-10 mg/kg s.c.) were without significant effect in any of the behavioural assays. Using the present methods and strains of laboratory rodents, these findings provide no support for the involvement of AII receptor function in the mediation of anxiety of working memory.

Electrophysiological, biochemical, neurohormonal and behavioural studies with WAY-100635, a potent, selective and silent 5-HT1A receptor antagonist.

Although considerable progress has been made in characterising the 5-HT1A receptor using agonists, partial agonists or non-selective antagonists, further studies of 5-HT1A receptor function have been hindered by the lack of highly selective antagonists. The term 'silent' antagonist has been used for such compounds in order to distinguish them unequivocally from several 5-HT1A receptor partial agonists which were initially designated 'antagonists'. In this report we provide a comprehensive review of the biochemical, pharmacological and behavioural properties of the first potent, selective and silent 5-HT1A receptor antagonist, WAY-100635 (N-[2-[4-(2-methoxyphenyl)-1-piperazinyl]ethyl)-N-(2- pyridinyl)cyclohexanecarboxamide trihydrochloride). WAY-100635 had an IC50 (displacement of specific [3H]8-OH-DPAT binding to 5-HT1A receptors in the rat hippocampus) of 1.35 nM and was > 100-fold selective for the 5-HT1A site relative to a range of other CNS receptors. [3H]WAY-100635 was also characterised as the first 5-HT1A antagonist radioligand, displaying the same regional distribution of binding sites as [3H]8-OH-DPAT in rat brain. As would be expected for the binding of an antagonist to a G-protein-coupled receptor, the Bmax of [3H]WAY-100635 specific binding was consistently 50-60% greater than that of the agonist radioligand, [3H]8-OH-DPAT. Mn2+, but not guanine nucleotides, inhibited [3H]WAY-100635-specific binding. [3H]WAY-100635 was also shown to bind selectively to brain 5-HT1A receptors in vivo, following intravenous administration to mice. In vitro electrophysiological studies demonstrated that WAY-100635 had no 5-HT1A receptor agonist actions, but dose-dependently blocked the effects of agonists at both the postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptor in the CA1 region of the hippocampus, and the somatodendritic 5-HT1A receptor located on dorsal raphe 5-HT neurones. In vivo, WAY-100635 also dose-dependently blocked the ability of 8-OH-DPAT to inhibit the firing of dorsal raphe 5-HT neurones, and to induce the '5-HT syndrome', hypothermia, hyperphagia and to elevate plasma ACTH levels. In the mouse light/dark box anxiety model, WAY-100635 induced anxiolytic-like effects. WAY-100635 had no intrinsic effect on cognition in the delayed-matching-to-position model of short-term memory in the rat, but reversed the disruptive effects of 8-OH-DPAT on motor motivational performance. These data clearly demonstrate that WAY-100635 is the first potent, selective and silent 5-HT1A receptor antagonist. Furthermore, [3H]WAY-100635 is the first antagonist radioligand to become available for 5-HT1A receptor binding studies both in vitro and in vivo. The positive effects of WAY-100635 in an anxiety model also indicate that a postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptor antagonist action may contribute to the anxiolytic properties of 5-HT1A receptor partial agonists.

Dissociation between cognitive and motor/motivational deficits in the delayed matching to position test: effects of scopolamine, 8-OH-DPAT and EAA antagonists.

The effects of the muscarinic antagonists scopolamine HBr and MeBr, the 5-HT1A agonist 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin (8-OH-DPAT), and the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) antagonists MK-801 and CGS-19755 on performance of rats in a delayed matching-to-position task were examined. Pretreatment with scopolamine HBr (0.05 and 0.1 mg/kg), resulted in a delay-dependent decrease in the percentage of correct responses and discriminability (log d), but had no effect on either the latency to complete trials, or the rate of trial completion during the fixed duration session. Scopolamine MeBr (0.1 mg/kg) did not impair percent correct or increase the response latency but did decrease the rate of trial completion. 8-OH-DPAT (up to 0.3 mg/kg), had no effect on percent correct, but did induce a small decrease in discriminability. The impairment in discriminability occurred only at a dose that substantially reduced the rate of trial completion. Both MK-801 (0.05 mg/kg) and CGS 19755 (10 mg/kg) induced a delay-independent impairment in percent correct, discriminability and a reduction in the rate of trial completion without affecting latency. A lower dose of CGS 19755 (5.0 mg/kg) induced a slight impairment in discriminability without significantly affecting the other measures. Taken together, these results demonstrate some dissociation between drug-induced cognitive and motor/motivational deficits in the DMTP test. However, the data question the specificity of putative cognitive impairments reported in many previous studies with the 5-HT1A agonist 8-OH-DPAT.