skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Purification of high affinity benzodiazepine receptor binding site fragments from rat brain

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:7024611

In central nervous system benzodiazepine recognition sites occur on neuronal cell surfaces as one member of a multireceptor complex, including recognition sites for benzodiazepines, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), barbiturates and a chloride ionophore. During photoaffinity labelling, the benzodiazepine agonist, /sup 3/H-flunitrazepam, is irreversibly bound to central benzodiazepine high affinity recognition sites in the presence of ultraviolet light. In these studies a /sup 3/H-flunitrazepam radiolabel was used to track the isolation and purification of high affinity agonist binding site fragments from membrane-bound benzodiazepine receptor in rat brain. The authors present a method for limited proteolysis of /sup 3/H-flunitrazepam photoaffinity labeled rat brain membranes, generating photolabeled benzodiazepine receptor fragments containing the agonist binding site. Using trypsin chymotrypsin A/sub 4/, or a combination of these two proteases, they have demonstrated the extent and time course for partial digestion of benzodiazepine receptor, yielding photolabeled receptor binding site fragments. These photolabeled receptor fragments have been further purified on the basis of size, using ultrafiltration, gel permeation chromatography, and sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) as well as on the basis of hydrophobicity, using a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) precolumn, several HPLC elution schemes, and two different HPLC column types. Using these procedures, they have purified three photolabeled benzodiazepine receptor fragments containing the agonist binding site which appear to have a molecular weight of less than 2000 daltons each.

Research Organization:
Georgetown Univ., Washington, DC (USA)
OSTI ID:
7024611
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English