Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptors in Neuroblastoma Cells: Lack of Effect of Veratrum Alkaloids on Receptor Number

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Abstract
The effect of compounds that activate Na channels on the number of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors in neuroblastoma NIE 115 cells were investigated. The cells were used in electrically unexcitable (control cells) and excitable (differentiated cells) states. Although receptor assays using a single concentration of the radioligand [3H]scopolamine methyl chloride indicated a loss of receptors after a 6-h incubation of cells with veratrine, no true loss of receptors was seen with any of the compounds tested (veratridine, veratrine, aconitine) when full saturation analyses were performed in either control or differentiated cells. The apparent receptor loss seen with veratrine was due to a muscarinic receptor-active component of veratrine (not veratridine) occluded by the cells and released into the binding assays upon cell breakage. Veratridine and aconitine have a very low affinity for muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, and the binding of carbamoylcholine to the receptors is unaffected by tetrodotoxin, so that there is no evidence in this system for interaction between muscarinic receptors and Na channels.