Interactions of Phosphodiester and Phosphorothioate Oligonucleotides with Intestinal Epithelial Caco-2 Cells

Purpose. Oral bioavailability for antisense oligonucleotides has recently been reported but the mechanistic details are not known. The proposed oral delivery of nucleic acids will, therefore, require an understanding of the membrane binding interactions, cell uptake and transport of oligonucleotides across the human gastro-intestinal epithelium. In this initial study, we report on the cell-surface interactions of oligonucleotides with human intestinal cells. Methods. We have used the Caco-2 cell line as an in vitro model of the human intestinal epithelium to investigate the membrane binding interactions of 20-mer phosphodiester (PO) and phosphorothioate (PS) oligonucleotides. Results. The cellular association of both an internally [³H]-labelled and a 5end [³²P]-labelled PS oligonucleotide (3.0% at 0.4 µM extracellular concentration) was similar and was an order of magnitude greater than that of the 5end [³²P]-labelled PO oligonucleotide (0.2%) after 15 minutes incubation in these intestinal cells. The cellular association of PS was highly saturable with association being reduced to 0.9% at 5 µM whereas that of PO was less susceptible to competition (0.2% at 5 µM, 0.1% at 200 µM). Differential temperature-dependence was demonstrated; PS interactions were temperature-independent whereas the cellular association of PO decreased by 75% from 37°C to 17°C. Cell association of oligonucleotides was length and pH-dependent. A decrease in pH from 7.2 to 5.0 resulted in a 2- to 3-fold increase in cell-association for both backbone types. This enhanced association was not due to changes in lipophilicity as the octanol:aqueous buffer distribution coefficients remained constant over this pH range. The ability of NaCl washes to remove surface-bound PS oligonucleotides in a concentration-dependent manner suggests their binding may involve ionic interactions at the cell surface. Cell-surface washing with the proteolytic enzyme, Pronase^®, removed approximately 50% of the cell-associated oligonucleotide for both backbone types. Conclusions. Binding to surface proteins seems a major pathway for binding and internalization for both oligonucleotide chemistries and appear consistent with receptor (binding protein)-mediated endocytosis. Whether this binding protein-mediated entry of oligonucleotides can result in efficient transepithelial transport, however, requires further study.     

Circadian rhythm of glucose utilization in the pineal body of rats of different ages

Employing quantitative autoradiography, pineal body glucose utilization (GU) was measured in daytime or at night in prepubertal (aged 1 month), adult (aged 3 months), and mature (over 12 months old) rats. In prepubertal and adult rats, in daytime, GU values within the pineal tissue were homogeneously distributed around 65 mol glucose/100 g per min. In prepubertal animals no significant variations in GU were observed between daytime and nocturnal measurements. A circadian metabolic rhythmicity was evident in adult rats, with a GU peak measured at 2 a.m. In mature animals, GU also varied between day and night, with an increment in the relative difference between the two values. The present investigation is the first to demonstrate that circadian metabolic rhythmicity is absent before sexual maturation while it is enhanced in 12-month-old rats. These changes in pineal energy metabolism with advancing age are intriguing in view of the concept that the pineal gland may be involved in functional changes occurring during the process of aging.     

D-aspartate binding to the glutamate uptake site in human brain tissue — effects of leucotomy

Summary Binding of [3 H]D-aspartate, as an indicator of glutamate uptake sites, was investigated in post-mortem human brain tissue by use of a centrifugation assay to separate free and bound ligand. Binding was displaceable, apparently saturable and to a single site, with mean K_D and Bmax values of 2.3 M and 40.3 nmol/g tissue in the frontal cortex. The method was applied to the study of tissue from frontal and temporal cortices and the caudate nucleus of five psychiatric patients who had undergone a frontal leucotomy. The effects of this neurosurgical procedure were to diminish by almost 50% the density of D-aspartate binding sites in the frontal cortex and caudate nucleus, while the temporal cortex was less affected. It is concluded that the method provides a potentially useful correlate of glutamatergic innervation in human brain tissue.     

Further studies on the extraneuronal uptake and metabolism of isoprenaline in the perfused rat heart

Summary To simultaneously determine the kinetics of removal, O-methylation and accumulation of ³H-isoprenaline, isolated rat hearts were perfused for 4 min with various concentrations of ³H-isoprenaline. The apparent K _m for the O-methylation of ³H-isoprenaline (3.3±0.5 M) was more than one order of magnitude lower than the corresponding value for the accumulation of unchanged amine (71.3±7.1 M). The apparent K _m for removal was very similar to that for accumulation (63.2±5.9 M). At perfusion concentrations higher than 25 M, i.e. when O-methylation was saturated, removal virtually equalled accumulation. However, at low substrate concentrations removal of ³H-isoprenaline was overwhelmingly followed by O-methylation; this led to a marked difference between rates of removal and those of accumulation.When initial rates of uptake of ³H-isoprenaline were determined after 1.5 min of perfusion of the hearts by the method of Graefe et al. (1978), the uptake of ³H-isoprenaline consisted of two components: a nonsaturable and a saturable (after subtraction of the nonsaturable component from the total uptake).The kinetic constants of the saturable component of uptake were higher than those obtained after 4 min perfusion (see above) (K _m : 110±19 M; V _max: 80±4 nmoles·g^–1·min^–1).Corticosterone competitively inhibited the saturable component of uptake of ³H-isoprenaline (K _m : 1.2 M).During wash out of accumulated ³H-isoprenaline, O-methylation took place predominantly in one of the two extraneuronal compartments. The efflux of 3-O-methyl-³H-isoprenaline (³H-OMI), the O-methylated metabolite of ³H-isoprenaline, was characterized by a half time of about 1.2 min. O-methylation accelerated the loss of radioactivity from the tissue during wash out.The extraneuronal uptake of ³H-isoprenaline was characterized as a pump and leak system by means of steady-state kinetics of accumulation of ³H-isoprenaline. Half saturation of the steady-state accumulation was observed at a concentration of 104.5 ±18.5 M ³H-isoprenaline; the leak component was characterized by a rate constant of 0.0359 min^–1.This study was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsge-meinschaftA preliminary account was presented at the 6th International Congress of Pharmacology (Graefe et al., 1975)     

Autoradiography of 14C-choline uptake in endplates and skeletal muscle of mice

Summary The uptake of ¹⁴C-choline into the axonal part of the motor endplate and muscle of mouse diaphragms was investigated by autoradiography. With i. v. doses of 0.1 g/g choline chloride, the uptake into the nerve endings is fast (<2 min) and into muscle slower (>2 min). With higher doses (1.0 g/g) the uptake into muscle tissue is accelerated.The radioactivity in the endplates decreases with a halflife time of 20 min and remains constant in the muscle fibres over 60 min. Denervation by cutting the phrenic nerve reduces the uptake into endplates by 40% within 14 h, but probably induces uptake into regenerating Schwann cells during 30 days. Some compounds with choline-like structure (hemicholinium-3, decamethylen-dicholine, triethyl-choline) reduce the high-affinity uptake of choline into the nerve endings with sublethal doses, whereas tetraethylammonium and N-hydroxyethyl-4-(1-naphthylvinyl)-pyridinium, an inhibitor of cholinacetyltransferase, are less active. Half lethal doses of cocaine, imipramine and reserpine have no significant action on uptake of choline into the endplates. Chlorpromazine slightly diminishes the uptake into endplates. Chlorpromazine and imipramine reduce uptake into the muscle fibres.     

In vitro studies on 6-fluoronoradrenaline at several peripheral sympathetic neuroeffector junctions

Summary A comparison of the effects of noradrenaline and 6-fluoronoradrenaline has been made at several peripheral sympathetic neuroeffector junctions. In the rat vas deferens preparation in the presence of 1 M cocaine, 6-fluoronor-adrenaline was found to be about 9 times more potent than noradrenaline as an agonist at presynaptic inhibitory ₂-adrenoceptors. In the rabbit aorta, 6-fluoronoradrenaline had approximately one tenth of the potency of noradrenaline in stimulating the postsynaptic ₁-adrenoceptors. Furthermore 6-fluoronoradrenaline, in contrast to previous reports, appears to be a substrate for the neuronal uptake process since exposure to cocaine potentiated the inhibition of the twitch response of the vas deferens by 6-fluoronoradrenaline. In addition, 6-fluoronoradrenaline increased the spontaneous outflow of radioactivity from rabbit pulmonary artery strips prelabelled with ³H-noradrenaline and this increase was blocked by cocaine (30M).These results demonstrate that 6-fluoronoradrenaline is a preferential ₂-adrenoceptor agonist which is a substrate for the neuronal uptake process in peripheral sympathetically innervated smooth muscle preparations.     

Oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide elimination during epinephrine-induced arrhythmias in humans

Key words  cardiac arrhythmias - oxygen uptake - carbon dioxide elimination     

Adrenergic stimulation of isolated rat gastric mucosal cells

Summary Adrenergic stimulation of the adenylate cyclase (AC)-cAMP-system and ¹⁴C-aminopyrine accumulation, an indirect measure of parietal cell H⁺-production, was studied in different preparations of gastric mucosal cells.The ₂-adrenoceptor agonist hexoprenaline activated AC of crude homogenates from the gastric corpus of mouse, rat, guinea-pig, hog, dog and man. In isolated rat gastric cells (20% parietal cells), treated by low power sonication, 10^–8 to 10^–3 mol/l adrenaline and hexoprenaline activated AC equally potently and efficaciously by maximally 170%. Isoprenaline proved to be less effective activating up to 80%. 5·10^–5 mol/l GMP-PNP augmented basal activity 8.5 times and reduced the maximal efficacy. Adrenaline and hexoprenaline activated AC by maximally 120%, isoprenaline by 40%. The potency of adrenaline was 4 times lower, that of hexoprenaline 2 and that of isoprenaline 4 times higher in the presence of GMP-PNP. Adrenergic stimulation was inhibited by the -adrenoceptor antagonist propranolol, the effect of -adrenoceptor-blockade by phenoxybenzamine was less pronounced. In fractions with 7–80% of parietal cells, prepared by isopycnic centrifugation with Percoll, adrenaline and hexoprenaline activated AC or hexoprenaline enhanced the cellular level of cAMP in parietal cell poor and rich fractions. The degree of activation in response to histamine correlated with the number of parietal cells. ¹⁴C-Aminopyrine uptake was increasingly stimulated through 10^–8 to 10^–5 mol/l hexoprenaline, maximally by doubling the basal accumulation. 10^–4 mol/l histamine was 8 times more effective. 3·10^–7 mol/l propranolol inhibited the effect of 10^–5 mol/l hexoprenaline by 80%.The data suggest the localization of -adrenoceptors (likely -adrenoceptor) on parietal and other nonidentified gastric cells. At the parietal cell, adrenaline and hexoprenaline initiate activation of AC and hexoprenaline leads to H⁺-production. The responses are small compared to the effect of histamine. Thus, -adrenoceptor agonists exert intrinsic activity in relation to H⁺-production. Their influence on stimulated secretion of isolated cells remains to be elucidated.     

Effects of delta-aminolaevulinic acid administration on social behaviour in the laboratory mouse

Platelets were examined to enable a simultaneous investigation to be made of indolylamine and electrolyte metabolism in affective disorder.No significant differences were detected in either platelet membrane ATPase or adenyl cyclase specific activity in any of the groups of patients studied, when compared with appropriate controls. A reduced V _max and for the 5-hydroxy-tryptamine uptake process into platelets was observed in both unipolar and bipolar depressed groups. The K _m for this process was not significantly different in any of the patients from that found in control subjects.Lithium therapy was shown not to influence significantly any of the platelet parameters examined.It is suggested that membrane enzyme changes found in some peripheral cells in patients suffering from affective disorder, i.e. reduced Na⁺+K⁺-ATPase activity in erythrocytes in depression, is not common to all peripheral cells and may or may not reflect central nervous system changes.