[125I]Spiperone is not a useful ligand for studying the CHAPS solubilized dopamine D-2 receptor from rat striatum

The interaction of [125I]spiperone and [3H]spiperone with CHAPS solubilized preparations of rat striatal tissue has been compared. Only about 15% of [125I]spiperone binding was displaced by sulpiride compared with about 67% of [3H]spiperone binding. In the presence of (+)-butaclamol the displacement of [125I]spiperone was twice that found with sulpiride suggesting an interaction with sites other than D-2 receptors. The specific binding of [125I]spiperone was not saturable within the maximum concentration range that could be employed and its affinity for soluble preparations was far lower than that of [3H]spiperone. Despite its very high specific activity [125I]spiperone offers no advantage over [3H]spiperone in the identification of dopamine receptors in soluble tissue preparations.