Efficacy of Cannabinoids in a Pre-Clinical Drug-Screening Platform for Alzheimer’s Disease
作者:David Schubert、Devin Kepchia、Zhibin Liang、Richard Dargusch、Joshua Goldberg、Pamela Maher
DOI:10.1007/s12035-019-1637-8
日期:2019.11
Finding a therapy for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is perhaps the greatest challenge for modern medicine. The chemical scaffolds of many drugs in the clinic today are based upon natural products from plants, yet Cannabis has not been extensively examined as a source of potential AD drug candidates. Here, we determine if a number of non-psychoactive cannabinoids are neuroprotective in a novel pre-clinical AD and neurodegeneration drug-screening platform that is based upon toxicities associated with the aging brain. This drug discovery paradigm has yielded several compounds in or approaching clinical trials for AD. Eleven cannabinoids were assayed for neuroprotection in assays that recapitulate proteotoxicity, loss of trophic support, oxidative stress, energy loss, and inflammation. These compounds were also assayed for their ability to remove intraneuronal amyloid and subjected to a structure-activity relationship analysis. Pairwise combinations were assayed for their ability to synergize to produce neuroprotective effects that were greater than additive. Nine of the 11 cannabinoids have the ability to protect cells in four distinct phenotypic neurodegeneration screening assays, including those using neurons that lack CB1 and CB2 receptors. They are able to remove intraneuronal Aβ, reduce oxidative damage, and protect from the loss of energy or trophic support. Structure-activity relationship (SAR) data show that functional antioxidant groups such as aromatic hydroxyls are necessary but not sufficient for neuroprotection. Therefore, there is a need to focus upon CB1 agonists that have these functionalities if neuroprotection is the goal. Pairwise combinations of THC and CBN lead to a synergistic neuroprotective interaction. Together, these results significantly extend the published data by showing that non-psychoactive cannabinoids are potential lead drug candidates for AD and other neurodegenerative diseases.
寻找阿尔茨海默病(AD)的治疗方法可能是现代医学面临的最大挑战。如今临床上许多药物的化学支架都是基于植物的天然产物,但大麻尚未作为潜在 AD 候选药物的来源进行广泛研究。在这里,我们根据与大脑老化相关的毒性,确定了一些非精神活性大麻素在新型临床前 AD 和神经退行性疾病药物筛选平台中是否具有神经保护作用。这种药物发现范式已经产生了几种正在进行或即将进行 AD 临床试验的化合物。在概括蛋白质毒性、营养支持丧失、氧化应激、能量损失和炎症的测定中,对十一种大麻素进行了神经保护作用。还测定了这些化合物去除神经元内淀粉样蛋白的能力,并进行结构-活性关系分析。分析了成对组合的协同作用能力,以产生大于相加的神经保护作用。 11 种大麻素中的 9 种能够在四种不同表型神经变性筛选试验中保护细胞,包括使用缺乏 CB1 和 CB2 受体的神经元的试验。它们能够去除神经元内的 Aβ,减少氧化损伤,并防止能量或营养支持的损失。构效关系(SAR)数据表明,芳香羟基等功能性抗氧化基团对于神经保护是必要的,但还不够。因此,如果神经保护是目标,则需要关注具有这些功能的 CB1 激动剂。 THC 和 CBN 的配对组合可产生协同的神经保护相互作用。总之,这些结果显着扩展了已发表的数据,表明非精神活性大麻素是 AD 和其他神经退行性疾病的潜在主要候选药物。