Real-time evaluation of somatostatin subtype 2 receptor activity employing the technique of cytosensor...

Five types of somatostatin (SS) receptors (sst1-5) have been cloned and are widely distributed in the central nervous system and variably expressed in target tissues of the periphery. At the cellular level, adenylate cyclase inhibition has been classically described in native and transfected cells expressing sst subtypes. In addition, ion channel modulation (K+, Ca2+), phospholipase C, phospholipase A2, and tyrosine phosphatase activation have also been reported. The present study describes a novel in vitro approach based on quantifying receptor-activated metabolic rate changes to evaluate SS biological activity in cells (CHO-K1) stably expressing the human (h) sst2 receptors. Real-time metabolic rate changes were evaluated by determining the rate of extracellular acidification (microphysiometry). The metabolic rate was transiently and potently (EC50 1 nM) increased in response to natural SS ligands, SS-14 and SS-28. The peak activation time was approximately 2 min. Pharmacological analysis for the sst2 receptor yielded rank order of potency for SS analogues of: MK-678 > BIM-23027 > octreotide > BIM-23014C << L-362,855 > BIM-23052 << BIM-23056. Similar rank orders were obtained from in vitro receptor binding studies in the same cell line. These results demonstrate that microphysiometry is a rapid and valid technique to evaluate the pharmacology SS receptor activation.