Pyrazole, an alcohol dehydrogenase inhibitor, has dual effects on N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors of hippocampal pyramidal cells: agonist and noncompetitive antagonist.

Electrophysiological and biochemical studies demonstrated that pyrazole, an inhibitor of alcohol dehydrogenase and a proposed therapeutic agent for treatment of alcoholic intoxication, activated and blocked the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor and did not interact significantly with the end-plate nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR). Pyrazole, at concentrations as low as 0.5 microM, applied to outside-out patches excised from the membrane of cultured rat hippocampal neurons, elicited single-channel currents of 48 pS which were blocked by DL-2-amino-5-phosphorovaleric acid, a competitive antagonist of NMDA. In addition, binding studies showed that pyrazole displaced 1-(cis-2-carboxypiperidine-4-yl)methyl-1-phosphoric acid from the agonist recognition site of the NMDA receptor in a concentration-dependent manner and enhanced the binding of (+)-5-methyl-10,11-dihydro-5H- dibenzo[a,d]cyclohepten-5,10-imine to this complex. These data indicate that pyrazole is an agonist at NMDA receptors. However, at higher concentrations, open and burst times as well as the frequency of single-channel currents activated by pyrazole were reduced significantly, a finding which suggests that this compound is also an open channel blocker. In agreement with these results, it was shown biochemically that pyrazole was able to stimulate influx of Ca++ into rat brain microsomes via NMDA receptors and on the other hand to block the influx of Ca++ induced by NMDA. Pyrazole was unable to affect the neuromuscular transmission of frog sartorius muscle-sciatic nerve preparations. Additionally, pyrazole did not interact either with the agonist recognition site or with noncompetitive sites of the AChR. However, this drug had a very weak agonist-like action on the AChR of the Torpedo electric organ, most likely via binding sites different from those described previously for acetylcholine. Therefore, the therapeutic efficacy of pyrazole may be related at least in part to its effects on the NMDA receptor. Furthermore, this compound, because of the small size and rigidity of its molecular structure, becomes a promising drug for the study of the NMDA receptor. Indeed its use may allow a better understanding of the physiological and pathological processes involving this receptor.