mAChR3/4; impurity/metabolite of clozapine

Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADD) is a method for chemical correlation of neural activity in remotely collective freely moving animals. DREADD is an apparently altered category of G-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that are themselves unresponsive to endogenous neurotransmitters but are receptive to other “non” exogenous chemicals [2].

Rhesus monkeys (5 to 6 years old, weight 5.5-7.9 kg) exhibit impaired working memory performance when given Deschloroclozapine (0.3 mg/kg; surgical injection) [3]. In vivo, desclozapine (0.1 mg/kg; im) reversibly senses behavioral effects in monkeys and effectively activates DREADD receptors [3].

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The most common chemogenetic neuromodulatory system, designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs), uses a non-endogenous actuator ligand to activate a modified muscarinic acetylcholine receptor that is insensitive to acetylcholine. It is crucial in studies using these systems to test the potential effects of DREADD actuators prior to any DREADD transduction, so that effects of DREADDs can be attributed to the chemogenetic system rather than the actuator drug, particularly in experiments using nonhuman primates. We investigated working memory performance after injections of three DREADD actuators, clozapine, olanzapine, and Deschloroclozapine, in four male rhesus monkeys tested in a spatial delayed response task before any DREADD transduction took place. Performance at 0.1 mg/kg clozapine and 0.1 mg/kg Deschloroclozapine did not differ from vehicle in any of the four subjects. 0.2 mg/kg clozapine impaired working memory function in three of the four monkeys. Two monkeys were impaired after 0.1 mg/kg olanzapine and two were impaired after 0.3 mg/kg Deschloroclozapine. We speculate that the unique neuropharmacology of prefrontal cortex function makes the primate prefrontal cortex especially vulnerable to off-target effects of DREADD actuator drugs with affinity for endogenous monoaminergic receptor systems. These findings underscore the importance of within-subject controls for DREADD actuator drugs in the specific tasks under study to confirm that effects following DREADD receptor transduction are not owing to the actuator drug itself. They also suggest that off-target effects of DREADD actuators may limit translational applications of chemogenetic neuromodulation.

Radioligand binding assays [2]
Human embryonic kidney (HEK-293, ATCC) cells were grown in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium supplemented with 2 mM L-glutamine, antibiotic/antimycotic (all supplements from Gibco) and 10% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum and kept in an incubator at 37 °C and 5% CO2. Cells were routinely tested for myclopasma contamination. Cells were seeded on 60 cm2 dishes at 4 × 106 cells/dish 24 h before transfection. The cells were transfected with 5 μg/dish of AAV packaging plasmids encoding for hM3Dq, hM4Di or a control vector and harvested 48 h after transfection. The cells were suspended in Tris-HCl 50 mM pH 7.4 supplemented with protease inhibitor cocktail. HEK-293 cells were disrupted with a Polytron homogenizer. Homogenates were centrifuged at 48,000 g (50 min, 4 °C) and washed twice in the same conditions to isolate the membrane fraction. Protein was quantified by the bicinchoninic acid method. For competition experiments, membrane suspensions (50 μg of protein/mL) were incubated in 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.4) containing 10 mM MgCl2, 2.5 nM of [3H]clozapine (3070 GBq/mmol (83 Ci/mmol)) and increasing concentrations of the competing drugs during 2 h at RT. Nonspecific binding was determined in the presence of 10 μM clozapine. In all cases, free and membrane-bound radioligand were separated by rapid filtration of 500 μL aliquots in a 96-well plate harvester and washed with 2 mL of ice-cold Tris-HCl buffer. Microscint-20 scintillation liquid (65 μL/well) was added to the filter plates. The plates were incubated overnight at RT and radioactivity counts were determined in a MicroBeta2 plate counter with an efficiency of 41%. One-site competition curves were fitted using Prism 7. Ki values were calculated using the Cheng–Prusoff equation.

Drugs were prepared fresh daily, at concentrations so that monkeys received 0.1 ml/kg for injection (e.g., for a 0.2 mg/kg dose of drug, drug solution was prepared at a concentration of 2.0 mg/ml). Solutions were filtered through a 0.22 µm syringe filter and pH was determined before injection. Acetic acid, sodium acetate, and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) were all obtained from Fisher Scientific. Concentrations used for glacial acetic acid, sodium acetate, and NaOH were 99.7% (v/v), 1 m, and 0.2 m, respectively. Clozapine was stored at room temperature. Clozapine was given at 0.1 or 0.2 mg/kg, intramuscularly. For 0.1 mg/kg, clozapine powder was first dissolved in acetic acid and sodium acetate then diluted with NaOH to a final concentration in 0.25/50/49.75 acetic acid/sodium acetate/NaOH (v/v/v). For 0.2 mg/kg, the same reagents were used but the final concentration was 0.5/50/49.5 acetic acid/sodium acetate/NaOH (v/v/v). Olanzapine was stored at room temperature and given at 0.05 or 0.1 mg/kg, intramuscularly. Olanzapine solutions were made using the same method as above for the 0.1 mg/kg clozapine dose. Deschloroclozapine was stored at 4 °C and was given at 0.1 mg/kg and 0.3 mg/kg, intramuscularly. Low dose of Deschloroclozapine was made using the same method as low-dose clozapine and high-dose Deschloroclozapine was made using the same method as the higher dose of clozapine. Vehicle injections consisted of 0.25/50/49.75 acetic acid, sodium acetate, and NaOH and were given at 0.1 ml/kg. Actuator injections were never administered more than twice in 1 week and never on adjacent test days to allow for a washout period, accounting for the half-life of clozapine (14.2 h on average) and olanzapine (33 h on average). There were vehicle or no-injection test days on other days of the test week. Actuators were not counterbalanced; we tested clozapine, olanzapine, and Deschloroclozapine in that order in each monkey. Within drug conditions, however, doses were shuffled in order across drug test days. We also interpolated additional clozapine test days during testing with the other two actuators. Throughout the study, we did not observe any order effects or obvious effects on behavior on the days following actuator injections. Clozapine and olanzapine were given in the home cage 10 min before the start of testing and Deschloroclozapine was given in the home cage 30 min before the start of testing. Clozapine and olanzapine both get into the brain fairly quickly and previous DREADD studies using these actuators have started behavior 10 min post injection. Deschloroclozapine shows a slightly slower timescale with higher plasma concentration ~15–30 min after intramuscular injection and CSF concentration continues to rise between 30 min to 90 min post injection. Accordingly, beginning the delayed response task 30 min post injection for Deschloroclozapine would allow sufficient time for the actuator to get into the brain.[3]

[1]. The metabolic formation of reactive intermediates from clozapine, a drug associated with agranulocytosis in man. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 1995;275(3):1463-1475.

[2]. 18F-labeled radiotracers for in vivo imaging of DREADD with positron emission tomography. Eur J Med Chem. 2021;213:113047.

[3]. Effect of chemogenetic actuator drugs on prefrontal cortex-dependent working memory in nonhuman primates. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2020;45(11):1793-1798.

Clozapine, a dibenzodiazepine antipsychotic, is associated with a 0.8% incidence of agranulocytosis. This clinically restrictive toxicity has been attributed to its chemically reactive metabolites. The generation of such metabolites--assessed via covalent binding and formation of thioether adducts--was investigated using human, rat and mouse liver microsomes and human neutrophils and bone marrow cells. In every instance, one major glutathione adduct of clozapine--C-6 glutathionyl clozapine--was formed in the presence of added glutathione. Adduct formation by the neutrophils and myeloid cells was dependent on cell activation by phorbol myristate acetate. Small fractions of drug underwent covalent binding to microsomes (1-6.8%) and to protein coincubated with neutrophils (0.47%) and myeloid cells (0.21%). Clozapine did not deplete intracellular glutathione in activated neutrophils. Clozapine was also metabolized in vivo to glutathione conjugates in rats and mice, the conjugates eliminated in bile over a 3-hr period representing 38% and 33% of the dose, respectively. In addition to the principal clozapine adduct found in vitro, the C-8 glutathionyl derivative of Deschloroclozapine was excreted by both species. It is concluded that clozapine undergoes bioactivation in several tissues and considerable bioactivation in vivo. The reactive metabolites generated by neutrophils and myeloid cells may play an important role in the metabolic causation of clozapine-induced agranuiocytosis. [1]

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Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADD) are a preclinical chemogenetic approach with clinical potential for various disorders. In vivo visualization of DREADDs has been achieved with positron emission tomography (PET) using 11C radiotracers. The objective of this study was to develop DREADD radiotracers labeled with 18F for a longer isotope half-life. A series of non-radioactive fluorinated analogs of clozapine with a wide range of in vitro binding affinities for the hM3Dq and hM4Di DREADD receptors has been synthesized for PET. Compound [18F]7b was radiolabeled via a modified 18F-deoxyfluorination protocol with a commercial ruthenium reagent. [18F]7b demonstrated encouraging PET imaging properties in a DREADD hM3Dq transgenic mouse model, whereas the radiotracer uptake in the wild type mouse brain was low. [18F]7b is a promising long-lived alternative to the DREADD radiotracers [11C]clozapine ([11C]CLZ) and [11C]Deschloroclozapine ([11C]DCZ).

C18H22CL2N4

365.30

364.1221521

Deschloroclozapine;1977-07-7

166610795

Light yellow to yellow solid powder

3

3

1

24

413

0

CN1CCN(CC1)C2=NC3=CC=CC=C3NC4=CC=CC=C42.Cl.Cl

ZMDCCOPUWCVMFM-UHFFFAOYSA-N

InChI=1S/C18H20N4.2ClH/c1-21-10-12-22(13-11-21)18-14-6-2-3-7-15(14)19-16-8-4-5-9-17(16)20-18;;/h2-9,19H,10-13H2,1H3;2*1H

6-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)-11H-benzo[b][1,4]benzodiazepine;dihydrochloride

Deschloroclozapine (dihydrochloride); DCZ; 1977-07-7 (free base);

2934.99.9001

Powder      -20°C    3 years

                     4°C     2 years

In solvent   -80°C    6 months

                  -20°C    1 month

Room temperature (This product is stable at ambient temperature for a few days during ordinary shipping and time spent in Customs)

May dissolve in DMSO (in most cases), if not, try other solvents such as H2O, Ethanol, or DMF with a minute amount of products to avoid loss of samples

Note: Listed below are some common formulations that may be used to formulate products with low water solubility (e.g. < 1 mg/mL), you may test these formulations using a minute amount of products to avoid loss of samples.

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Injection Formulation 1: DMSO : Tween 80： Saline = 10 : 5 : 85 (i.e. 100 μL DMSO stock solution → 50 μL Tween 80 → 850 μL Saline)
*Preparation of saline: Dissolve 0.9 g of sodium chloride in 100 mL ddH ₂ O to obtain a clear solution.
Injection Formulation 2: DMSO : PEG300 ：Tween 80 : Saline = 10 : 40 : 5 : 45 (i.e. 100 μL DMSO → 400 μLPEG300 → 50 μL Tween 80 → 450 μL Saline)
Injection Formulation 3: DMSO : Corn oil = 10 : 90 (i.e. 100 μL DMSO → 900 μL Corn oil)
Example: Take the Injection Formulation 3 (DMSO : Corn oil = 10 : 90) as an example, if 1 mL of 2.5 mg/mL working solution is to be prepared, you can take 100 μL 25 mg/mL DMSO stock solution and add to 900 μL corn oil, mix well to obtain a clear or suspension solution (2.5 mg/mL, ready for use in animals).

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Injection Formulation 4: DMSO : 20% SBE-β-CD in saline = 10 : 90 [i.e. 100 μL DMSO → 900 μL (20% SBE-β-CD in saline)]
*Preparation of 20% SBE-β-CD in Saline (4°C，1 week): Dissolve 2 g SBE-β-CD in 10 mL saline to obtain a clear solution.
Injection Formulation 5: 2-Hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin : Saline = 50 : 50 (i.e. 500 μL 2-Hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin → 500 μL Saline)
Injection Formulation 6: DMSO : PEG300 : castor oil : Saline = 5 : 10 : 20 : 65 (i.e. 50 μL DMSO → 100 μLPEG300 → 200 μL castor oil → 650 μL Saline)
Injection Formulation 7: Ethanol : Cremophor : Saline = 10： 10 : 80 (i.e. 100 μL Ethanol → 100 μL Cremophor → 800 μL Saline)
Injection Formulation 8: Dissolve in Cremophor/Ethanol (50 : 50), then diluted by Saline
Injection Formulation 9: EtOH : Corn oil = 10 : 90 (i.e. 100 μL EtOH → 900 μL Corn oil)
Injection Formulation 10: EtOH : PEG300：Tween 80 : Saline = 10 : 40 : 5 : 45 (i.e. 100 μL EtOH → 400 μLPEG300 → 50 μL Tween 80 → 450 μL Saline)

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Oral Formulation 1: Suspend in 0.5% CMC Na (carboxymethylcellulose sodium)
Oral Formulation 2: Suspend in 0.5% Carboxymethyl cellulose
Example: Take the Oral Formulation 1 (Suspend in 0.5% CMC Na) as an example, if 100 mL of 2.5 mg/mL working solution is to be prepared, you can first prepare 0.5% CMC Na solution by measuring 0.5 g CMC Na and dissolve it in 100 mL ddH2O to obtain a clear solution; then add 250 mg of the product to 100 mL 0.5% CMC Na solution, to make the suspension solution (2.5 mg/mL, ready for use in animals).

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Oral Formulation 3: Dissolved in PEG400
Oral Formulation 4: Suspend in 0.2% Carboxymethyl cellulose
Oral Formulation 5: Dissolve in 0.25% Tween 80 and 0.5% Carboxymethyl cellulose
Oral Formulation 6: Mixing with food powders

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Note: Please be aware that the above formulations are for reference only. InvivoChem strongly recommends customers to read literature methods/protocols carefully before determining which formulation you should use for in vivo studies, as different compounds have different solubility properties and have to be formulated differently.

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 (Please use freshly prepared in vivo formulations for optimal results.)