Hosie, A.M., Shirai, Y., Buckingham, S.D., Rauh, J.J., Roush, R.T., Baylis, H.A., Sattelle, D.B. (1995). Blocking actions of BIDN, a bicyclic dinitrile convulsant compound, on wild-type and dieldrin-resistant GABA receptor homo-oligomers of Drosophila melanogaster expressed in Xenopus oocytes.  Brain Res. 693(1-2): 257--260.

FBrf0084043

Research paper

The receptor antagonist actions are described for a novel bicyclic dinitrile compound (BIDN, 3,3-bis-(trifluoromethyl)-bicyclo [2.2.1] heptane-2,2-dicarbonitrile) on a Drosophila melanogaster homo-oligomeric GABA receptor expressed in Xenopus oocytes. BIDN blocked the wild-type form of the receptor in a neither purely competitive, nor purely non-competitive manner, being dependent on the GABA concentration yet insurmountable, and block was independent of the membrane potential. BIDN was found to be less effective against a mutant (A(302) --> S) form of the receptor resistant to dieldrin and picrotoxinin. This cross resistance of dieldrin-resistant receptors to BIDN is of interest in the light of recent findings that BIDN binding to insect membranes is displaced competitively by dieldrin, but not by picrotoxinin.