Pertussis toxin lesioning of the nucleus caudate-putamen attenuates adenylate cyclase inhibition and alters neuronal electrophysiological activity

Receptor-mediated inhibition of brain adenylate cyclase activity has been well characterized at the biochemical level. However, less understood is how these, typically modest, inhibitory effects on cyclase activity correlate with the electrophysiological activity of brain preparations. In addressing this question, we injected pertussis toxin (PT) into the nucleus caudate-putamen of intact rats, and observed a subsequent attenuated inhibition of adenylate cyclase activity in caudate membranes, which correlated with altered electrophysiological activity in this nucleus. PT completely abolished and electrophysiological activity in this nucleus. PT completely abolished and significantly reduced, respectively, dopamine D2 and opioid receptor-mediated inhibition of adenylate cyclase. In addition, pretreatment of rat caudate nuclei with PT attenuated the amount of in vitro ADP-ribosylation of 41,000 and 39,000 Da PT substrates measured in caudate membranes. Extracellular recording of the spontaneous activity of caudate neurons revealed that PT pretreatment significantly increased firing rates above those of cells recorded from sham-operated and unoperated controls. Furthermore, a significantly greater number of cells pretreated with PT displayed interspike intervals less than 50 ms, reflecting 'burst-like' activity. In short, the inactivation of G-proteins serving as PT substrates in rat caudate-putamen renders caudate cells more likely to fire spontaneously, and to fire in bursting, rather than uniform, patterns of activity. These observations suggest that PT substrates identical or similar to those which regulate adenylate cyclase, play a significant role in governing the electrophysiological behavior of intact caudate neurons.