Pharmacological characterization of homobaclofen on wild type and mutant GABAB1b receptors coexpressed with the GABAB2 receptor

Abstract Homobaclofen (5-amino-3-(4-chlorophenyl) pentanoic acid) is a homologue of the classical GABA B receptor agonist baclofen. In a recent study, the two enantiomers of this compound were tested in a GABA B receptor selective [ 3 H]γ-aminobutyric acid ([ 3 H]GABA) binding assay using rat brain homogenate and in an assay of electrically induced contractions of guinea pig ileum. The results from the two tissues did, however, not correlate very well, and in order to further investigate these discrepancies, we have pharmacologically characterized these enantiomers on recombinant wild type and mutant rat GABA B 1b receptors coexpressed with rat GABA B 2 receptors. The results from this study correlate nicely with the binding data from rat brain. ( R )-Homobaclofen was shown to act like ( R )-baclofen albeit with 20-fold less potency, and ( S )-homobaclofen was inactive on the receptor. The discrepancies between the data obtained in this study and those from the guinea pig ileum model could be ascribed to differences in amino acid sequence or receptor splicing of GABA B receptors between the two species. Another explanation for the observation is the possible existence of a novel yet uncloned GABA B receptor in guinea pig iluem.