CART (cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript) peptides have been studied for ten years. We report specific binding of 125I-CART(61-102) to the rat adrenal pheochromocytoma PC12 cell line, both intact cells and cell membranes. Saturation binding to intact plated cells resulted in Kd of 0.48+/-0.16 nM and Bmax of 2228+/-529 binding sites/cell. 125I-CART(61-102) was also bound to PC12 cells differentiated using nerve growth factor to the neuronal phenotype with non-specific binding below 20%, and Kd of 1.90+/-0.27 nM and Bmax of 11,194+/-261 binding sites/cell. In competitive binding experiments, CART(61-102), CART(55-102) and di-iodinated CART(61-102) were bound to PC12 cell membranes with Ki in low nM range; their affinity to intact non-differentiated and differentiated cells was in low 10(-8) M range. In order to prove that iodination did not eliminate the pharmacological properties of CART, we tested the biological activity of di-iodinated CART(61-102). It decreased food intake in in vivo feeding experiment on fasted mice in a dose of 1 microg/mouse to the same extent as CART(61-102) in a dose of 0.5 microg/mouse.

Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague Czech Republic