Different behavior toward muscarinic receptor binding between quaternary anticholinergics and their tertiary analogues.

A number of corresponding tertiary and quaternary anticholinergic analogues were examined for their ability to inhibit specific (3)H-dexetimide binding to calf brain muscarinic receptors. In all cases the tertiary antagonists (except pirenzepine) showed steep and monophasic inhibition curves, whereas those of the quaternary derivatives were shallow (thiazinamium, methylbenactyzine) or even biphasic (oxyphenonium, methylatropine, methylscopolamine). These observations show that the addition of a methyl group to the nitrogen atom changes the mode of interaction of the anticholinergics to muscarinic receptor binding sites. Whether there are separate binding sites present or differences in interaction mode for only the quaternary moiety is discussed.