Evidence that a guanine nucleotide-binding protein linked to a muscarinic receptor inhibits directly phospholipase C.

The mechanism of phospholipase C regulation by inhibitory receptors was analyzed both in intact and in permeabilized rat thyroid cells (FRTL5). In this system, the muscarinic agonist carbachol inhibited phospholipase C, as indicated by the decrease in the basal levels of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate as well as by the reduced adrenergic stimulation of phosphoinositol accumulation, which was paralleled by a fall in the cytosolic Ca2+ levels. This inhibition involved an M2 muscarinic receptor because it was abolished by atropine but not by the M1 antagonist pirenzepine. Cells pretreated with pertussis toxin were not responsive to carbachol, indicating the involvement of a guanine nucleotide-binding protein in this inhibitory process. This possibility was further evaluated in permeabilized cells, where the carbachol inhibition was shown to be completely dependent on GTP. Known second messengers were not involved in this inhibitory process since Ca2+, cAMP, and activators of protein kinases were not able to mimic or prevent the carbachol effect either in intact or in permeabilized FRTL5 cells. In this system, the phospholipases C and A2 are coupled to two classes of muscarinic receptors that display a different sensitivity to pertussis toxin. The carbachol inhibitory effect occurred under conditions that prevented activation of phospholipase A2, excluding a role of the arachidonic acid metabolism in this process. Taken together these data provide the strongest support to date that an inhibitory guanine nucleotide-binding protein sensitive to pertussis toxin can directly mediate receptor-induced inhibition of phospholipase C.