Jacques Chauveau is a French businessman, well known for his outstanding maritime collection and for his work as President of the Association of Friends of the Maritime Museum for the Atlantic (AMERAMI). He is a member of the board of directors of maritime museums and is vice‐president of a provisional association working for the creation of a national foundation for the maritime and fluvial heritage. His long years of experience as an avid collector and an equally fervent museum‐goer have led to the following reflections.

Two monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), 5A4 and 6D6, directed against cortisol, have been obtained; 6D6 is used in an assay kit for cortisol. The antibodies also recognize other, structurally related steroids present in the sample assayed. To improve the specificity of the assay, we aimed to minimize the recognition of non-cortisol steroids by the two anti-cortisol mAbs. Our strategy consisted in constructing an efficient expression vector in E. coli which produced the single-chain variable fragment (scFv) of the mAbs in the periplasmic space. We demonstrated that temperature and inducer concentration of the bacterial culture influenced dramatically the yield of active scFv. From the nucleotide sequence we constructed a three-dimensional model of the two variable fragments in order to understand why related steroids are, or are not recognized by the antibody. For both antibodies, we have identified chemical groups which are probably involved in the binding of the steroid haptens and the antibodies. The hydrophobic pocket formed by the antibody comprises two or three tryptophan residues which can interact with the steroid nucleus by stacking. The serine at position 35 of the heavy chain is buried in the back of the pocket and can form a hydrogen bond with the 20-keto group of the cortisol. The stacking interactions and the hydrogen bond orient the steroid in the pocket. This reactivity of the binding site is sustained by the analysis of the cross-reactions of related steroids with the mAbs.

Abstract: There is a lack of radioactive probes, particularly radioiodinated probes, for the direct labeling of serotonin‐1B (5‐HT1B) and serotonin‐ID (5‐HT1D) binding sites. Serotonin‐0‐carboxymethylglycyltyrosinamide (S‐CM‐GTNH2) was shown previously to be specific for these two subtypes; we, therefore, linked a 125I to its tyrosine residue. Biochemical and pharmacological properties of S‐CM‐G[125I]TNH2‐binding sites were studied by quantitative au‐toradiography on rat and guinea pig brain sections. S‐CM‐G[I25I]TNH2 binding is saturable and reversible with a KD value of 1.3 nM in the rat and 6.4 nM in the guinea pig. Binding is heterogeneous, paralleling the anatomical distribution of 5‐HT1B sites in the rat and of 5‐HTD sites in the guinea pig. The binding of 0.02 nM S‐CM‐G[125I]TNH2 was inhibited by low concentrations of 5‐HT, S‐CM‐GTNH2, CGS 12066 B, 5‐methoxytryptamine, and tryptamine in both species. Propranolol inhibited the radioligand binding with a greater affinity in the rat than in the guinea pig. Conversely, 8‐hydroxy‐2‐(di‐n‐propylamino)tetralin inhibited S‐CM‐G[125I]TNH2 binding with a greater affinity in the guinea pig than in the rat. Other competitors, specific for 5‐HT,c, 5‐HT2, 5‐HT3, and adrenergic receptors, inhibited S‐CM‐G[125I]TNH2 binding in rat and guinea pig substantia nigra and in other labeled structures known to contain these receptors, but only at high concentrations. S‐CM‐G[I25I]TNH2 is then a useful new probe for the direct study of 5‐HT1B and 5‐HT1D binding sites.

The affinities of several 5-hydroxy-indole derivatives for serotonin-1 (5-HT1) binding site subtypes, labeled with 2 nM [3H]5-HT, were assessed by quantitative autoradiography on rat brain sections. The results obtained with known ligands, namely 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), 5-methoxytryptamine (5-Me-OT), 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyl-tryptamine (5-Me-ODMT), 5-hydroxy-N, N-dimethyl-tryptamine (bufotenine) and 8-hydroxy-2-[di-N-propylamino]tetralin (8-OH-DPAT) demonstrate the reliability and the advantages of this technique for pharmacological studies. Novel serotonin derivatives were synthesized by carboxymethylation of the hydroxyl group. One of those new ligands, serotonin-O-carboxy-methyl-glycyl-tyrosinamide (S-CM-GTNH2), inhibited 2 nM [3H]5-HT binding to the substantia nigra with an IC50 of 22.4 nM, a value which is 22 times lower than that found in the dentate gyrus and choroïd plexus. This demonstrates the preferential affinity of S-CM-GTNH2 for 5-HT1B versus 5-HT1A and 5-HT1C binding sites. S-CM-GTNH2 contains a tyrosine residue, which may be useful for the synthesis of a radioactive iodinated molecule and for the preparation of ‘long-lasting ligands’ linked through peptide bonds with a protein. These derivatives could be of great interest for ultrastructural and behavioral studies relevant to 5-HT1B sites.