The selective action of quinacrine on high-threshold calcium channels in rat hippocampal cells

1. The whole-cell patch-clamp technique has been used to examine Ca channel currents carried by Ba (IBa) in rat hippocampal neurones. 2. Quinacrine selectivity decreased the high-threshold current activated by membrane depolarization from a holding potential of -70 mV. Neither the low-threshold Ca channel current nor the fast tetrodotoxin (TTX)-sensitive sodium current were affected by quinacrine. 3. Bath application of quinacrine caused a dose-dependent reduction of the peak amplitude of IBa. This effect was fast, voltage-independent, reversible and had a Kd of 30 +/- 5 microM. 4. The quinacrine-induced block did not change the time-course and the voltage dependence of IBa activation and deactivation. The inhibition revealed no use-dependence, ruling out an open channel block by quinacrine. 5. p-Bromophenacyl bromide had no effect on IBa suggesting the lack of involvement of phospholipase A2 in the action of quinacrine. In addition, the quinacrine-induced block was not related to the calmodulin pathway and internal quinacrine did not affect the peak amplitude of IBa. 6. The effect of quinacrine on the amplitude of IBa was dependent of the external pH, and suggested that only the single-protonated form of the drug can bind to the channel receptor with a Kd of 3 microM. Quinacrine and other substituted acridines can thus be useful for pharmacological and structure-activity studies of Ca channels.