Cytisine binds with similar affinity to nicotinic alpha4beta2 receptors on the cell surface and in homogenates.

Cytisine and nicotine bound to specific sites in homogenates prepared from HEK 293 cells which stably express human neuronal nicotinic alpha4 and beta2 subunits. The number of sites was the same for both ligands and nicotine was a full competitive inhibitor of cytisine binding. However, when binding was done to intact cells the number of binding sites per cell for nicotine was approximately 4-fold the number of sites for cytisine. Nicotine fully blocked cytisine binding, but cytisine only partially blocked nicotine binding to intact cells. When cells were permeabilized with saponin, the number of sites for nicotine was unchanged, while the number of sites for cytisine was increased, and cytisine was able to fully block nicotine binding. These data indicate that cytisine binds only to surface receptors on intact cells. The apparent affinity of cytisine for surface receptors (K(d)=0.8 nM) was not significantly different from that for receptors in the cell homogenate (0.3 nM).