Abstract

Most of the currently available calmodulin (CaM) antagonists inhibit the actions of CaM by binding directly to it. These CaM-binding drugs tend to be relatively nonselective, because they inhibit the interaction of CaM with most, if not all, of its target enzymes. In order to develop more selective CaM antagonists, we synthesized covalent adducts of CaM and several drugs, including chlorpromazine (CPZ), fluphenazine-N-mustard (FNM), and phenoxybenzamine (PBZ), and examined the effects of these adducts on various CaM and Ca2(+)-dependent enzymes. One of the adducts (CPZ-CaM) selectively inhibited the CaM-induced activation of phosphodiesterase and myosin light chain kinase, without affecting the basal activity of either enzyme. The inhibition of these enzymes by CPZ-CaM was competitive with respect to CaM. CPZ-CaM did not inhibit CaM-sensitive Ca2(+)-ATPase or CaM-dependent protein kinase or the CaM-insensitive enzyme protein kinase C. The FNM-CaM and PBZ-CaM adducts did not inhibit the effects of CaM on any of the enzymes, but they selectively activated two of the enzymes; FNM-CaM slightly activated the CaM-dependent protein kinase, and PBZ-CaM slightly activated phosphodiesterase. These results show that certain covalently linked drug-CaM adducts can differentially inhibit or activate various CaM-sensitive enzymes, and they provide further evidence that it may be possible to develop new classes of CaM antagonists that are directed against the CaM recognition sites on CaM-sensitive enzymes.