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Kaszyńska AA. Cannabinoids: Potential for Modulation and Enhancement When Combined with Vitamin B12 in Case of Neurodegenerative Disorders. Pharmaceuticals (Basel) 2024; 17:813. [PMID: 38931480 PMCID: PMC11207064 DOI: 10.3390/ph17060813] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2024] [Revised: 05/26/2024] [Accepted: 05/28/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024] Open
Abstract
The enduring relationship between humanity and the cannabis plant has witnessed significant transformations, particularly with the widespread legalization of medical cannabis. This has led to the recognition of diverse pharmacological formulations of medical cannabis, containing 545 identified natural compounds, including 144 phytocannabinoids like Δ9-THC and CBD. Cannabinoids exert distinct regulatory effects on physiological processes, prompting their investigation in neurodegenerative diseases. Recent research highlights their potential in modulating protein aggregation and mitochondrial dysfunction, crucial factors in conditions such as Alzheimer's Disease, multiple sclerosis, or Parkinson's disease. The discussion emphasizes the importance of maintaining homeodynamics in neurodegenerative disorders and explores innovative therapeutic approaches such as nanoparticles and RNA aptamers. Moreover, cannabinoids, particularly CBD, demonstrate anti-inflammatory effects through the modulation of microglial activity, offering multifaceted neuroprotection including mitigating aggregation. Additionally, the potential integration of cannabinoids with vitamin B12 presents a holistic framework for addressing neurodegeneration, considering their roles in homeodynamics and nervous system functioning including the hippocampal neurogenesis. The potential synergistic therapeutic benefits of combining CBD with vitamin B12 underscore a promising avenue for advancing treatment strategies in neurodegenerative diseases. However, further research is imperative to fully elucidate their effects and potential applications, emphasizing the dynamic nature of this field and its potential to reshape neurodegenerative disease treatment paradigms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Aleksandra Kaszyńska
- The Centre of Neurocognitive Research, Institute of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Chodakowska 19/31, 03-815 Warszawa, Poland
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Chaturvedi K, Anthony CS, Pandey P, Doerksen RJ, Godfrey M. Influence of structural characteristics on the binding of synthetic cannabinoids from the JWH family to the CB1 receptor: A computational study. J Mol Graph Model 2024; 126:108620. [PMID: 37722351 PMCID: PMC10841904 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmgm.2023.108620] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2022] [Revised: 07/31/2023] [Accepted: 08/30/2023] [Indexed: 09/20/2023]
Abstract
Synthetic cannabinoids, including some from the John W. Huffman (JWH) family, emerged on the drug scene around 2004 as "alternative marijuana," despite being considerably more potent than marijuana. Like Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, synthetic cannabinoids have also been found to interact with cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2, found in the brain, immune system, and peripheral organs. The JWH compounds and other synthetic cannabinoids have become important subjects of research in the forensic science community due to their drug-abuse potential, undetectability under routine drug screening, and unpredictable toxicity. In this study, an active-state CB1 receptor model was used to assess the receptor-ligand interactions between the CB1 receptor and ligands from the JWH synthetic cannabinoid family, as well as some newly designed JWH-like virtual compounds, labeled as MGCS compounds, using docking, binding free-energy calculations (ΔG), and molecular dynamics simulations (MDs). The calculated ΔG revealed that the carbonyl group between the naphthalene and the indole, characteristic of the JWH family, and the length of the N-linked alkyl chain were two important structural characteristics that influenced the predicted CB1 binding affinity, especially as increasing the length of the alkyl chain led to better predicted binding affinity. MDs and per-residue-breakdown results showed that the designed MGCS compounds with a pentyl chain attached to the naphthalene moiety and selected JWH compounds formed stable and strong hydrophobic interactions with the key residues Phe170, Phe174, Phe177, Phe200, Phe268, and Trp279 of the CB1 receptor. Comprehension of these critical interactions can help forensic chemists predict the structure of undiscovered families of synthetic cannabinoids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Krishna Chaturvedi
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi, 38677, United States
| | - Caroline S Anthony
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi, 38677, United States
| | - Pankaj Pandey
- Department of BioMolecular Sciences and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi, 38677, United States; National Center for Natural Products Research, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, MS 38677-1848, United States
| | - Robert J Doerksen
- Department of BioMolecular Sciences and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi, 38677, United States
| | - Murrell Godfrey
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi, 38677, United States.
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Yuan J, Yang B, Hou G, Xie XQ, Feng Z. Targeting the endocannabinoid system: Structural determinants and molecular mechanism of allosteric modulation. Drug Discov Today 2023; 28:103615. [PMID: 37172889 PMCID: PMC10330941 DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2023.103615] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2023] [Revised: 04/17/2023] [Accepted: 05/05/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
Although drugs targeting the orthosteric binding site of cannabinoid receptors (CBRs) have several therapeutic effects on human physiological and pathological conditions, they can also cause serious adverse effects. Only a few orthosteric ligands have successfully passed clinical trials. Recently, allosteric modulation has become a novel option for drug discovery, with fewer adverse effects and the potential to avoid drug overdose. In this review, we highlight novel findings related to the drug discovery of allosteric modulators (AMs) targeting CBRs. We summarize newly synthesized AMs and the reported/predicted allosteric binding sites. We also discuss the structural determinants of the AMs binding as well as the molecular mechanism of CBR allostery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiayi Yuan
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Computational Chemical Genomics Screening Center, and Pharmacometrics & System Pharmacology PharmacoAnalytics, School of Pharmacy; National Center of Excellence for Computational Drug Abuse Research; Drug Discovery Institute; Departments of Computational Biology and Structural Biology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, United States
| | - Bo Yang
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Computational Chemical Genomics Screening Center, and Pharmacometrics & System Pharmacology PharmacoAnalytics, School of Pharmacy; National Center of Excellence for Computational Drug Abuse Research; Drug Discovery Institute; Departments of Computational Biology and Structural Biology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, United States
| | - Guanyu Hou
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Computational Chemical Genomics Screening Center, and Pharmacometrics & System Pharmacology PharmacoAnalytics, School of Pharmacy; National Center of Excellence for Computational Drug Abuse Research; Drug Discovery Institute; Departments of Computational Biology and Structural Biology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, United States
| | - Xiang-Qun Xie
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Computational Chemical Genomics Screening Center, and Pharmacometrics & System Pharmacology PharmacoAnalytics, School of Pharmacy; National Center of Excellence for Computational Drug Abuse Research; Drug Discovery Institute; Departments of Computational Biology and Structural Biology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, United States
| | - Zhiwei Feng
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Computational Chemical Genomics Screening Center, and Pharmacometrics & System Pharmacology PharmacoAnalytics, School of Pharmacy; National Center of Excellence for Computational Drug Abuse Research; Drug Discovery Institute; Departments of Computational Biology and Structural Biology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, United States.
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Molecular design, molecular docking and ADMET study of cyclic sulfonamide derivatives as SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors. CHINESE JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY 2021. [PMCID: PMC8479971 DOI: 10.1016/j.cjac.2021.09.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to spread globally with more than 172 million confirmed cases and 3.57 million deaths. Cyclic sulfonamide derivative is identified as a successful compound and showed anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity. In this study, the structure and activity relationships of 35 cyclic sulfonamide compound inhibitors are investigated by using three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) and holographic quantitative structure-activity relationship (HQSAR). Two models with good statistical parameters and reliable predictive ability are obtained from the same training set, including Topomer CoMFA (q2= 0.623,r2= 0.938,rpred2= 0.893) model and HQSAR (q2= 0.704,r2= 0.958,rpred2=0.779) model. The established models not only have good stability, but also show good external prediction ability for the test set. The contour and color code maps of the models provide a lot of useful information for determining the structural requirements which might affect the activity; this information paves the way for the design of four novel cyclic sulfonamide compounds, and predictes their pIC50 values. We explore the interaction between the newly designed molecule and SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro by molecular docking. The docking results show that GLU166, GLN192, ALA194, and VAL186 may be the potential active residues of the SARS-CoV-2 inhibitor evaluated in this study. Finally, the oral bioavailability and toxicity of the newly designed cyclic sulfonamide compounds are evaluated and the results show that the four newly designed cyclic sulfonamide compounds have major ADMET properties and can be used as reliable inhibitors against COVID-19. These results may provide useful insights for the design of effective SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors.
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Lowe H, Toyang N, Steele B, Bryant J, Ngwa W. The Endocannabinoid System: A Potential Target for the Treatment of Various Diseases. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:9472. [PMID: 34502379 PMCID: PMC8430969 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22179472] [Citation(s) in RCA: 82] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2021] [Revised: 08/23/2021] [Accepted: 08/26/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The Endocannabinoid System (ECS) is primarily responsible for maintaining homeostasis, a balance in internal environment (temperature, mood, and immune system) and energy input and output in living, biological systems. In addition to regulating physiological processes, the ECS directly influences anxiety, feeding behaviour/appetite, emotional behaviour, depression, nervous functions, neurogenesis, neuroprotection, reward, cognition, learning, memory, pain sensation, fertility, pregnancy, and pre-and post-natal development. The ECS is also involved in several pathophysiological diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. In recent years, genetic and pharmacological manipulation of the ECS has gained significant interest in medicine, research, and drug discovery and development. The distribution of the components of the ECS system throughout the body, and the physiological/pathophysiological role of the ECS-signalling pathways in many diseases, all offer promising opportunities for the development of novel cannabinergic, cannabimimetic, and cannabinoid-based therapeutic drugs that genetically or pharmacologically modulate the ECS via inhibition of metabolic pathways and/or agonism or antagonism of the receptors of the ECS. This modulation results in the differential expression/activity of the components of the ECS that may be beneficial in the treatment of a number of diseases. This manuscript in-depth review will investigate the potential of the ECS in the treatment of various diseases, and to put forth the suggestion that many of these secondary metabolites of Cannabis sativa L. (hereafter referred to as "C. sativa L." or "medical cannabis"), may also have potential as lead compounds in the development of cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals for a variety of diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Henry Lowe
- Biotech R & D Institute, University of the West Indies, Mona 99999, Jamaica; (H.L.); (J.B.)
- Vilotos Pharmaceuticals Inc., Baltimore, MD 21202, USA;
- Flavocure Biotech Inc., Baltimore, MD 21202, USA
- Department of Medicine, University of Maryland Medical School, Baltimore, MD 21202, USA
| | - Ngeh Toyang
- Vilotos Pharmaceuticals Inc., Baltimore, MD 21202, USA;
- Flavocure Biotech Inc., Baltimore, MD 21202, USA
| | - Blair Steele
- Biotech R & D Institute, University of the West Indies, Mona 99999, Jamaica; (H.L.); (J.B.)
| | - Joseph Bryant
- Biotech R & D Institute, University of the West Indies, Mona 99999, Jamaica; (H.L.); (J.B.)
| | - Wilfred Ngwa
- Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA;
- Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
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