The pharmacological properties of a novel MCH1 receptor antagonist isolated from combinatorial libraries
Article
Nagasaki, H, Chung, S, Dooley, CT et al. (2009). The pharmacological properties of a novel MCH1 receptor antagonist isolated from combinatorial libraries
. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY, 602(2-3), 194-202. 10.1016/j.ejphar.2008.10.068
Nagasaki, H, Chung, S, Dooley, CT et al. (2009). The pharmacological properties of a novel MCH1 receptor antagonist isolated from combinatorial libraries
. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY, 602(2-3), 194-202. 10.1016/j.ejphar.2008.10.068
Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) is a neuropeptide that exhibits potent orexigenic activity. In rodents, it exerts its actions by interacting with one receptor, MCH1 receptor which is expressed in many parts of the central nervous system (CNS). To study the physiological implications of the MCH system, we need to be able to block it locally and acutely. This necessitates the use of MCH1 receptor antagonists. While MCH1 receptor antagonists have been previously reported, they are mainly not accessible to academic research. We apply here a strategy that leads to the isolation of a high affinity and selective MCH1 receptor antagonist amenable to in vivo analyses without further chemical modifications. This antagonist, TPI 1361-17, was identified through the screening of multiple non-peptide positional scanning synthetic combinatorial libraries (PS-SCL) totaling more than eight hundred thousand compounds in conditions that allow for the identification of only high-affinity compounds. TPI 1361-17 exhibited an IC50 value of 6.1 nM for inhibition of 1 nM MCH-induced Ca2+ mobilization and completely displaced the binding of [125I] MCH to rat MCH1 receptor. TPI 1361-17 was found specific, having no affinity for a variety of other G-protein coupled receptors and channels. TPI 1361-17 was found active in vivo since it blocked MCH-induced food intake by 75%. Our results indicate that TPI 1361-17 is a novel and selective MCH1 receptor antagonist and is an effective tool to study the physiological functions of the MCH system. These results also illustrate the successful application of combinatorial library screening to identify specific surrogate antagonists in an academic setting.
