Abstract

Muscimol is a psychoactive isoxazole derived from the mushroom Amanita muscaria and a potent orthosteric agonist of the GABA_A receptor. The binding of [³H]muscimol has been used to evaluate the distribution of GABA_A receptors in the brain, and studies of modulation of [³H]muscimol binding by allosteric GABAergic modulators such as barbiturates and steroid anesthetics have provided insight into the modes of action of these drugs on the GABA_A receptor. It has, however, not been feasible to directly apply interaction parameters derived from functional studies to describe the binding of muscimol to the receptor. Here, we employed the Monod-Wyman-Changeux concerted transition model to analyze muscimol binding isotherms. We show that the binding isotherms from recombinant α1β3 GABA_A receptors can be qualitatively predicted using electrophysiological data pertaining to properties of receptor activation and desensitization in the presence of muscimol. The model predicts enhancement of [³H]muscimol binding in the presence of the steroids allopregnanolone and pregnenolone sulfate, although the steroids interact with distinct sites and either enhance (allopregnanolone) or reduce (pregnenolone sulfate) receptor function. We infer that the concerted transition model can be used to link radioligand binding and electrophysiological data.