Chlorpromazine methiodide-induced barrel rotation: an antimuscarinic effect

Barrel rotation is a motor response observed in rats in which the animal twists about its long axis and rolls laterally. This response was first described following intracerebroventricular injection of somatostatin. The pharmacologic specificity of the response has been questioned, and its physiologic basis is unknown. Recently, barrel rotation following intraventricular injection of quaternary chlorpromazine, chlorpromazine methiodide (CPZMI), has been reported. We have studied the specificity and pharmacologic basis of CPZMI-induced barrel rotation. The response was not induced by 26 compounds injected as controls, and was induced by 6 anti-muscarinic compounds. Dose-response relationships for onset, duration and magnitude of CPZMI-induced barrel rotation response were studied; number of rotations increased linearly with CPZMI dose up to 20 micrograms, after which number of rotations decreased and toxic effects (sedation, seizures) occurred. CPZMI barrel rotation was inhibited by intraventricular injection of the muscarinic agonist carbachol and enhanced by intraventricular or systemic atropine. Muscarinic and dopamine receptor studies indicated that CPZMI has high affinity for the muscarinic cholinergic receptor and low affinity for the spiperone binding site. Modified Scatchard analysis of CPZMI displacement of [3H]QNB at the muscarinic receptor is consistent with muscarinic antagonist properties. We conclude that CPZMI-induced barrel rotation has a specific pharmacologic basis, that of muscarinic cholinergic antagonism.