Pharmacological studies on the antagonism by antidepressants of the hypothermia induced by apomorphine.

In male Swiss mice, the hypothermia induced by apomorphine (10 mg/kg) was completely blocked by administration of haloperidol and d-butaclamol, but not by l-butaclamol, phenoxybenzamine, clozapine or propranolol. This substantiated the dopaminergic nature of the hypothermia induced by apomorphine. Desipramine, imipramine, chlorimipramine, fluoxetine and mazindol produced a dose-dependent blockade of apomorphine-induced hypothermia, their ED50S being 0.313, 0.733, 1.88, 6.04 and 0.0033 mg/kg, respectively. Iprindole failed to block the hypothermia induced by apomorphine. Because chlorimipramine and fluoxetine, which are relatively more selective and more potent blockers of the uptake of serotonin (5-HT) than is desipramine, were considerably less effective than the latter in antagonizing hypothermia induced by apomorphine, it was concluded that the property of blocking uptake of 5-HT alone does not contribute to the antagonism to apomorphine exhibited by the classical antidepressants. Quipazine, a 5-HT agonist, blocked the hypothermia induced by apomorphine, this effect developed tolerance on repeated administration. However, no cross-tolerance between quipazine and the antidepressants could be demonstrated. This finding provided further support for the non-involvement of 5-HT in the antagonism to apomorphine. No correlation existed between the potencies of these antidepressants to block the reuptake of norepinephrine (NE) in brain and their relative potencies to block the hypothermia induced by apomorphine. Moreover, selective depletion of high affinity binding sites for [3H]desipramine and [3H]-NE, achieved by treatment with DSP-4, failed to reduce the effectiveness of desipramine in blocking the hypothermia induced by apomorphine. Hence, inhibition of uptake of NE does not account for the antagonism by the antidepressants of apomorphine-induced hypothermia. A possibility was considered that certain antidepressants selectively blocked the hypothalamic DA receptors, thereby antagonizing the hypothermic effects of apomorphine, leaving the extra-hypothalamic dopaminergic responses of this DA agonist unaffected.