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Cannabinoid receptor with an 'identity crisis' gets a second look

Nature Medicine volume 21, pages 966–967 (2015)Cite this article

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Five years ago, neuroscientist Ken Mackie of Indiana University in Bloomington called cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) “a cannabinoid receptor with an identity crisis”1. Throughout the previous two decades, researchers had reported conflicting results about the location of the receptor in the body, arguing in particular over its role in the central nervous system. The confusion dampened enthusiasm for CB2 as a drug target, even though preclinical work had shown it to have promise for illnesses ranging from liver fibrosis2 to Alzheimer's disease3. Now, new research tools are clearing up the mysteries and recasting CB2 as a receptor with vast therapeutic potential.

“CB2 apparently is part of a protective system,” says Raphael Mechoulam, who led a team that identified tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) as the psychoactive compound in cannabis in 1964 and continues his research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. “Mice in which the CB2 is blocked are okay—as long as they are not sick. But once they are sick, then the CB2 is extremely important in a whole variety of diseases.” Mechoulam, who is widely considered the father of cannabinoid research, has developed several compounds that selectively target CB2, including one now licensed to Hoffmann-LaRoche.

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  1. Nala Rogers
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Rogers, N. Cannabinoid receptor with an 'identity crisis' gets a second look. Nat Med 21, 966–967 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0915-966

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