title: Increased affinity of dimeric enkephalins is not dependent on receptor density.
abstract: The equilibrium binding and dissociation kinetics of the enkephalin dimer bis-(D-Ala2-D-Leu5-enkephalin)-ethylenediamide (designated DPE2) to neuroblastoma glioma NG108-15 cells were investigated and compared with the monomers D-Ala2-D-Leu5-enkephalin (DADL) and D-Ala2-Leu5-enkephalinamide (DALEA). Binding was studied after exposure of the membrane to increasing concentrations of the irreversible delta receptor selective ligand FIT in order to decrease the density of binding sites on the cell membrane. The increased affinity of DPE2 did not revert to that of the monomer DADL by this reduction of binding sites. Similarly, the dissociation of DPE2 did not approach that of the monomer DALEA in the presence of 1 microM DALEA. These data strongly suggest that crosslinking does not occur, and fail to confirm the hypothesis that dimers with short spanning chain length aid the clustering of receptors. We postulate: 1) If the dimer binds to a bivalent binding site, the monovalent binding state of our bivalent ligand may not exist to an appreciable extent, and 2) the bivalent ligand cannot bind when the binding site is irreversibly blocked by a monovalent ligand.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Lutz
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Cruciani
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Jacobson
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Rice
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Burke
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Krumins
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rodbard
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D004743:Enkephalin, Leucine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism; D016308:Enkephalin, Leucine-2-Alanine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D005910:Glioma; D007700:Kinetics; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009447:Neuroblastoma; D011957:Receptors, Opioid / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D017465:Receptors, Opioid, delta
chemical_list: D011957:Receptors, Opioid; D017465:Receptors, Opioid, delta; D004743:Enkephalin, Leucine; D016308:Enkephalin, Leucine-2-Alanine; C030279:enkephalinamide-Leu, Ala(2)-; C036465:enkephalinamide-Leu, Ala(2)-aminoethyl dimer-