Dopamine D-2 receptor agonist-induced behavioural depression: critical dependence upon postsynaptic dopamine D-1 function. A behavioural and biochemical study.

The dopamine (DA) D-2 receptor agonists quinpirole (threshold dose, 0.01 mg/kg IP), pergolide (0.025 mg/kg), B-HT 920 (0.003 mg/kg) and (-)-3-PPP (4 mg/kg) produced dose-dependent locomotor depression (immobility) in mice as assessed by a subjective scoring system, with the immobility being characterized by a frozen posture. The animals were still but had their eyes open. The immobility was accompanied by reductions in sniffing, rearing and grooming. The depression (and the associated reduction in the various behaviours) produced by quinpirole (0.1 mg/kg), pergolide (0.1 mg/kg) and B-HT 920 (0.1 mg/kg) was substantially (but not always completely) reversed by the selective D-1 receptor agonist SKF38393 (up to 12 mg/kg) and the non-selective D-1 receptor agonist CY208243 (up to 3 mg/kg). The immobility induced by (-)-3-PPP (16 mg/kg) was also reversed by CY208243 and SKF38393, but the reversal was due to an increase in grooming behaviour in mice challenged with the D-1 receptor agonists, whether or not the animals had also received (-)-3-PPP. There was no reversal of the depression of rearing or sniffing. In contrast, CY208243 and SKF38393 also antagonized the immobility induced by B-HT 920, but the reversal was accompanied by at least partial reversals of the depression of sniffing, rearing and grooming. The reversal of quinpirole-induced immobility by SKF38393 and CY208243 was antagonized by SCH23390 (0.1 mg/kg). The selective D-2 receptor antagonist raclopride (0.025 to 0.4 mg/kg) could not reverse quinpirole-induced immobility. High doses of either raclopride (0.4 mg/kg) or SCH23390 (greater than 0.1 mg/kg) significantly increased immobility. Although raclopride itself (0.2 mg/kg) produced a substantial increase in DOPAC and homovanillic acid (HVA) levels in the striatum, it did not antagonize the autoreceptor mediated effects of quinpirole (0.1 mg/kg) in reducing the striatal dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) to DA ratio. However, the same dose of raclopride was partly effective in reducing the effects of lower doses of quinpirole (0.01 and 0.03 mg/kg) on the striatal DOPAC to DA ratio. Raclopride (0.2 mg/kg) also partially but significantly reduced the locomotor stimulant effects of d-amphetamine in reserpinized mice. Biochemical analyses in the striata indicated that CY208243 slightly retarded DA turnover (as assessed by the DOPAC/DA ratio). SKF38393 itself also slightly reduced DA turnover. In automated activity cages, using mice depleted of DA with reserpine and alpha-methyltyrosine, all the D-2 receptor agonists tested, in combination with SKF38393, produced an increase in activity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)