Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P21554 (cannabinoid receptor)
 3,582 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Previous studies of the structure-activity relationships (SAR) for binding of a series of AC-bicyclic cannabinoid structures to the cannabinoid receptors in rat brain (believed to comprise the CB1 subtype) demonstrated the importance of the A-ring aryl C-3 side chain and phenolic hydroxyl substituents, and elucidated the importance of a C-ring hydroxyalkyl substituent [Melvin et al. Mol. Pharmacol. 44, 1008-1015 (1993)]. The present investigation examines the SAR surrounding this region (D-ring) of the molecule that is not present in the structure of delta(9)-THC and other classical cannabinoid compounds. Both rigid fused ring benzo and cyclohexyl derivatives (creating the D-ring) retained binding affinity for the cannabinoid receptor. Extension of ketone or hydroxyl substituents from the C2 position of the D-ring resulted in a 3-fold increase in binding affinity over the unsubstituted structure. However, the fused ring structure is not critical for the interaction with the receptor in as much as opening the ring did not decrease the potency. Extension of the D-ring C-2 alcohol by one carbon in length resulted in a pair of structures, for which the greatest affinity for the CB1 receptor occurred for the hydroxymethyl group in the axial conformation [(+/-)-CP-55,244]. Upon resolution, the latter provided a pair of enantiomers: (-)-CP-55,244 was approximately 3-fold more potent than the racemic mixtures, and (+)-CP-55,244 failed to bind to the CB1 receptor with an IC50 below 1 mM. Opening of the D-ring of these structures resulted in a loss of binding affinity. This study demonstrates that the potency could be optimized in (-)-CP-55,244 for both binding to the CB1 receptor and the biological activity of analgesia. In addition, the rigid positioning of the hydroxypropyl moiety of CP-55,940 enforced by the decalin ring structure of CP-55,244 increased the enantioselectivity by greater than 100-fold. These data define the critical stereochemistry for a region of the nonclassical ACD-tricyclic cannabinoid structure that contributes a potential hydrogen bonding component to the ligand-receptor interaction mechanism. Inasmuch as this region of the molecule is not present on classical ABC-tricyclic cannabinoid compounds, these studies elucidate a unique agonist recognition site on the CB1 receptor.
 ...
PMID:Structure-activity relationships defining the ACD-tricyclic cannabinoids: cannabinoid receptor binding and analgesic activity. 887 58

Constrained molecular dynamics simulations on anandamide, together with a systematic distance comparison search, have revealed a specific low-energy conformer whose spatial disposition of the pharmacophoric elements closely matches that of HHC. This conformer enables near superposition of the following: (1) the oxygen of the carboxyamide and the phenolic hydroxyl group of HHC, (2) the hydroxyl group of the ethanol and the cyclohexyl hydroxyl group of HHC, (3) the alkyl tail and the lipophilic side chain of HHC, and (4) the polyolefin loop and the tricyclic ring structure of HHC. The close matching of common pharmacophoric elements of anandamide with HHC offers persuasive evidence of the biological relevance of this conformer. The proposed pharmacophore model was capable of discriminating between structurally related compounds exhibiting different pharmacological potency for the CB1 cannabinoid receptor, i.e., anandamide and N-(2-hydroxyethyl)prostaglandinamide. Furthermore, a 3D-QSAR model was derived using CoMFA for a training set of 29 classical and nonclassical analogues which rationalized the binding affinity in terms of steric and electrostatic properties and, more importantly, which predicted the potency of anandamide in excellent agreement with experimental data. The ABC tricyclic HU-210/HU-211 and ACD tricyclic CP55,243/CP55,244 enantiomeric pairs were employed as test compounds to validate the present CoMFA model. For each enantiomeric pair, the CoMFA-predicted log Ki values correctly identified that enantiomer exhibiting the higher affinity for the receptor.
 ...
PMID:Derivation of a pharmacophore model for anandamide using constrained conformational searching and comparative molecular field analysis. 978 95

Association of cannabimimetic compounds such as cannabinoids, aminoalkylindoles (AAIs), and arachidonylethanolamide (anandamide) with the brain cannabinoid (CB(1)) receptor activates G-proteins and relays signals to regulate neuronal functions. A CB(1) receptor homology model was constructed using the published x-ray crystal structure of bovine rhodopsin (Palczewski et al., Science, 2000, Vol. 289, pp. 739-745) in the conformation most likely to represent the "high-affinity" state for agonist binding to G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). A molecular docking approach that combined Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations was used to identify the putative binding conformations of nonclassical cannabinoid agonists, including AC-bicyclic CP47497 and CP55940, and ACD-tricyclic CP55244. Placement of these ligands was based upon the assumption of a critical hydrogen bond between the A-ring OH and the side chain N of Lys192 in transmembrane helix 3. We evaluated two alternative binding conformations, C3-in and C3-out, denoting the directionality of the ligand C3 side chain within the receptor with respect to the inside or the outside of the cell. Assuming both the C3-in or C3-out conformation, the calculated ligand-receptor binding energy (DeltaE(bind)) was correlated with the experimentally observed binding affinity (K(i)) for a series of nonclassical cannabinoid agonists. The C3-in conformation was marginally better than the alternative C3-out conformation in predicting the rank order of the tested nonclassical cannabinoid analogs. Adopting the C3-in conformation due to the greater number of receptor interactions with known pharmacophoric elements of the ligand, key residues were identified comprising the presumed hydrophobic pocket that interacts with the C3 side chain of cannabinoid agonists. Key hydrogen bonds would form between both K3.28(192) and E(258) and the A-ring OH, and between Q(261) and the C-ring C-12 hydroxypropyl. In summary, the present study represents one of the first attempts to construct a homology model of the CB(1) cannabinoid receptor based upon the published bovine rhodopsin x-ray crystal structure and to elucidate the putative ligand binding site for nonclassical cannabinoid agonists. We postulated sites of the CB(1) receptor critical for the ligand interaction, including the hydrophobic pocket interacting with the key pharmacophoric moiety, the C3 side chain. More work is needed to delineate between two alternative (and possibly other) binding conformations of the nonclassical cannabinoid ligands within the CB(1) receptor. The present study provides a consistent framework for further investigation of the CB(1) receptor-ligand interaction and for the study of CB(1) receptor activation.
 ...
PMID:Homology model of the CB1 cannabinoid receptor: sites critical for nonclassical cannabinoid agonist interaction. 1276 17

To determine the moiety that behaves as the steric trigger to activate the CB(1) cannabinoid receptor, conformational properties of the nonclassical cannabinoid CP55244, one of the most potent CB(1) receptor agonists, were characterized by conformational analysis, rotational barrier calculations, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. It was shown from the present MD simulations that the torsion angles phi1 and phi4 of the C3 side chain showed the most dramatic change when compared with the ground-state receptor-bound conformation, indicating that rotation around these torsion angles is responsible for releasing the ligand strain energy. Multiple stages would be involved in the ligand conformational change. As a molecular mechanism for the ligand-induced CB(1) receptor conformational change, we propose that the C3 side chain serves as the steric trigger, while the ACD-ring moiety of CP55244 serves as the plug. Steric clash with helices within the binding pocket would induce microconformational adaptation within the protein. This mechanism would suggest that rotational flexibility in a ligand may be as important a determinant of agonist activity as the pharmacophoric elements that can be identified.
 ...
PMID:Steric trigger as a mechanism for CB1 cannabinoid receptor activation. 1527 55