Navaratne PV, Wilkerson JL, Ranasinghe KD, Semenova E, Felix JS, Ghiviriga I, Roitberg A, McMahon LR, Grenning AJ. Axially Chiral Cannabinols: A New Platform for Cannabinoid‐Inspired Drug Discovery.
ChemMedChem 2020;
15:728-732. [PMID:
32061146 PMCID:
PMC10173896 DOI:
10.1002/cmdc.202000025]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Phytocannabinoids (and synthetic analogs thereof) are gaining significant attention as promising leads in modern medicine. Considering this, new directions for the design of phytocannabinoid-inspired molecules is of immediate interest. In this regard, we have hypothesized that axially-chiral-cannabinols (ax-CBNs), unnatural and unknown isomers of cannabinol (CBN) may be valuable scaffolds for cannabinoid-inspired drug discovery. There are two main factors directing our interest to these scaffolds: (a) ax-CBNs would have ground-state three-dimensionality; ligand-receptor interactions can be more significant with complimentary 3D-topology, and (b) ax-CBNs at their core structure are biaryl molecules, generally attractive platforms for pharmaceutical development due to their ease of functionalization and stability. Herein we report a synthesis of ax-CBNs, examine physical properties experimentally and computationally, and perform a comparative analysis of ax-CBN and THC in mice behavioral studies.
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