Different effects of cAMP and cGMP derivatives on the activity of an identified neuron: biochemical and electrophysiological analysis.

Eight-position substituted cAMP and cGMP derivatives, and phosphodiesterase inhibitors, modify endogenous 'bursting' activity in Aplysia neuron R15. Several different patterns of activity were elicited depending on the agent used. 8-Benzylthio-cAMP or 8-parachlorophenylthio-cAMP, at concentrations between 5 muM and 0.3 mM, markedly enhanced the depth and duration of the interburst hyperpolarization, and in some cells bursting was inhibited completely. In contrast, 8-parachlorophenyl-thio-cGMP treatment led to some depolarization and to the appearance of long slow bursts, with little effect on the interburst phase. When the parachlorophenylthio-derivatives of cAMP and cGMP were added together at equal concentrations, a pattern consisting of long bursts interrupted by long and deep interburst hyperpolarizations was observed. This pattern could also be elicited by the phosphodiesterase inhibitor isobutylmethylxanthine (IBMX). IBMX inhibited cAMP and cGMP phosphodiesterases and caused both cAMP and cGMP to accumulate in intact ganglia and in individual identified neuronal cell bodies including that of R15. Another phosphodiesterase inhibitor, Ro 7-2956, was a more potent inhibitor of cAMP than of cGMP phosphodiesterase; Ro 7-2956 also modified bursting activity, and seemed to enhance preferentially the interburst hyperpolarization. At high concentrations the 8-substituted cAMP and cGMP derivatives also inhibited cAMP and cGMP phosphodiesterases. The 8-parachlorophenylthio-derivatives of cAMP and cGMP were indistinguishable from each other in this assay, and thus phosphodiesterase inhibition cannot be responsible for their differential effects on bursting activity. The derivatives stimulated protein kinase activity in Aplysia ganglion homogenates, as measured by the incorporation of 32P from ATP into histone. IBMX and Ro 7-2956 had no detectable effect on protein kinase activity. The concentrations of cAMP and cGMP derivatives required for protein kinase activation (10(-8)M-10(-6)M) were much lower than those required for phosphodiesterase inhibition (10(-5)M-10(-3)M). Thus, differential protein phosphorylation is more likely to be responsible for the effects of cAMP and cGMP derivatives on neuron R15 bursting activity than is differential phosphodiesterase inhibition.