Purification of A1 adenosine receptor from rat brain membranes

The A1 adenosine receptor from rat brain membranes has been purified about 50,000-fold to apparent homogeneity by sequential use of affinity chromatography on immobilized xanthine amine congener-agarose, hydroxylapatite chromatography, and reaffinity chromatography. The overall yield starting from the membranes was approximately 4%. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the purified preparation gave a broad single band of an apparent molecular weight of 34,000 either by silver staining or autoradiogram after radioiodination. The purified receptor bound approximately 24 nmol of 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-3H]dipropylxanthine/mg of protein with a dissociation constant of 1.4 nM. This maximum specific binding value is consistent with the expected theoretical specific activity (29.4 nmol/mg) for a protein with a molecular mass of 34,000 daltons if it is assumed that there is one ligand-binding site/receptor molecule. Affinity-labeling experiments using 3H]p-phenylenediisothiocyanate-xanthine amine congener showed that the Mr = 34,000 protein band contained the ligand-binding sites. The purified receptor gave a typical A1 adenosine receptor pharmacological specificity similar to that of unpurified receptor preparations.