Method of obtaining a composition comprising a 5-HT1D selective compound

A method of obtaining a composition which comprises screening compounds to identify a compound which interacts with, and specifically binds to, (a) a human 5-HT1D receptor expressed on the surface of a mammalian cell transfected with a vector adapted for expressing the receptor in the cell or (b) a human 5-HT1D receptor present in a membrane preparation obtained from such a mammalian cell, and if the compound interacts with, and specifically binds to the receptor in (a) or (b), recovering the compound free of any 5-HT1D receptor and admixing the compound with a carrier;

• wherein the 5-HT1D receptor is (1) a 5-HT1D-1 receptor which has an amino acid sequence encoded by a DNA sequence which is 65% or more homologous to the receptor-encoding DNA sequence contained in plasmid pcEXV-8-30-84 (ATCC Accession No. 40790) and exhibits essentially the same binding properties as those shown in Table 1 for the human 5-HT1D−1 receptor;
• or (2) a 5-HT1D-2 receptor which has an amino acid sequence encoded by a DNA sequence which is 65% or more homologous to the receptor-encoding DNA sequence contained in plasmid pSVL-11 (ATCC Accession No. 40791) and exhibits essentially the same binding properties as those shown in Table 1 for the human 5-HT1D-2 receptor.