Discrimination of multiple [3H]5-hydroxytryptamine binding sites by the neuroleptic spiperone in rat brain

Certain neuroleptic drugs, such as spiperone and (+) butaclamol, can discriminate between two populations of [3H]5-hydroxytryptamine ([3H]5-HT) binding sites in rat brain. The butyrophenone neuroleptic spiperone shows the greatest selectivity for these two binding sites, having at least a 3000-fold difference between its dissociation constants (2-12 nM versus 35,000 nM) for the high- and low-affinity sites, respectively. Inhibition of [3H]5-HT binding by spiperone in rat frontal cortex and corpus striatum yields distinctly biphasic inhibition curves with Hill slopes significantly less than unity. Results from nonlinear regression analysis of these inhibition studies were consistent with a two-site model in each brain region. In the frontal cortex the high-affinity neuroleptic sites comprised about 60% of the total [3H]5-HT binding sites whereas in the corpus striatum they accounted for only 20% of the sites. Furthermore, saturation studies of [3H]5-HT binding assayed in the absence or presence of 1 microM-spiperone (a concentration that completely blocks the high-affinity site while having minimal activity at the low-affinity site) reveal a parallel shift in the Scatchard plot with no change in the dissociation constant of [3H]5-HT, but a significant decrease (64% in frontal cortex or 28% in corpus striatum) in the number of specific binding sites. These observations are consistent with the existence of at least two populations of [3H]5-HT binding sites having a differential regional distribution in rat brain.