Pharmacological characterization of the bradykinin B2 receptor: inter‐species variability and dissociation between binding and functional responses

The present study addresses the differences in binding profiles and functional properties of the human and rat bradykinin (BK) B2 receptor using various kinin receptor peptide derivatives as well as the non‐peptide receptor antagonists WIN 64338 (phosphonium, [[4‐[[2‐[[bis(cyclohexylamino)methylene]amino]‐3‐(2‐naphtalenyl)1‐oxopropyl]amino]‐phenyl]‐methyl]tributyl, chloride, monohydro‐chloride), and FR173657 (E)‐3‐(6‐acetamido‐3‐pyridyl)‐N‐[‐N‐[2,4‐dichloro‐3‐[(2‐methyl‐8‐quinolinyl)oxymethyl]‐phenyl]N‐methylamino carbonyl methyl] acrylamide. [3H]‐BK bound with a similar affinity to membranes of Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO‐K1) expressing the cloned human (hB2‐CHO) or rat (rB2‐CHO) B2 receptor, human embryonic intestine cells (INT407) expressing the native B2 receptor, human umbilical vein (HUV) and rat uterus (RU). WIN 64338 and FR173657 bound with a 3.8–6.6 fold and 7.0–16.3 fold higher affinity the rat than the human B2 receptor, respectively. The affinity values of BK derivatives as well as non‐peptide antagonists were reduced by 6–23 fold in physiological HBSS compared to low ionic strength TES binding buffer. BK (0.01–3000 nM) increased inositol triphosphates (IP3) levels in hB2‐CHO, rB2‐CHO and INT407 cells. The B2 receptor antagonist, Hoe 140 (D‐Arg0‐[ Hyp3, Thi5, D‐Tic7, Oic8]‐BK) at 10−7 M, significantly shifted to the right the IP3 response curves to BK giving apparent pKB values of 8.56, 9.79 and 8.84 for hB2‐CHO, rB2‐CHO and INT407 cells, respectively. In human isolated umbilical vein, Hoe 140, D‐Arg0‐[Hyp3, D‐Phe7, Leu8]‐BK and NPC 567 had a lower potency in functional assays (pKB 8.18, 5.77 and 5.60, respectively) than expected from their affinity in binding studies (pKi 10.52, 8.64 and 8.27, respectively). FR173657 behaved as a high affinity ligand with pKi values of 8.59 and 9.81 and potent competitive antagonist with pKB values of 7.80 and 8.17 in HUV and RU, respectively. FR173657 bound with a similar affinity the cloned and native bradykinin B2 receptor in human (pKi of 8.66 and 8.59, respectively) and in rat (pKi 9.67 and 9.81, respectively). In conclusion, we suggest that the binding buffer composition has to be taken into account when screening new compounds and that inter‐species differences should be considered when setting up animal models with the aim of developing bradykinin B2 receptor antagonists as therapeutic agents. British Journal of Pharmacology (1999) 126, 1083–1090; doi:10.1038/sj.bjp.0702403