The adrenergic receptor antagonist carvedilol interacts with serotonin 2A receptors both in vitro and in vivo

Abstract

There is increasing support for the potential clinical use of compounds that interact with serotonin 2A (5-HT2A) receptors. It is therefore of interest to discover novel compounds that interact with 5-HT2A receptors. In the present study, we used computational chemistry to identify critical ligand structural features of 5-HT2A receptor binding and function. Query of compound databases using those ligand features revealed the adrenergic receptor antagonist carvedilol as a high priority match. As carvedilol is used clinically for cardiovascular diseases, we conducted experiments to assess whether it has any interactions with 5-HT2A receptors. In vitro experiments demonstrated that carvedilol has high nanomolar affinity for 5-HT2A receptors. In vivo experiments demonstrated that carvedilol increases the ethanol-induced loss of the righting reflex and suppresses operant responding in mice, and that these effects are attenuated by pretreatment with the selective 5-HT2A receptor antagonist M100907. Moreover, carvedilol did not induce the head-twitch response in mice, suggesting a lack of psychedelic effects. However, carvedilol did not activate canonical 5-HT2A receptor signaling pathways and antagonized serotonin-mediated signaling. It also reduced the head-twitch response induced by 2,5-Dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine, suggesting potential in vivo antagonism, allosteric modulation, or functional bias. These data suggest that carvedilol has functionally relevant interactions with 5-HT2A receptors, providing a novel mechanism of action for a clinically used compound. However, our findings do not clearly delineate the precise mechanism of action of carvedilol at 5-HT2A receptors, and additional experiments are needed to elucidate the role of 5-HT2A receptors in the behavioral and clinical effects of carvedilol.