Structure of a cannabinoid receptor and functional expression of the cloned cDNA

• DOI: 10.1038/346561a0
• Publication Date: 2003-06-12T18:48:27Z
• Authors: Lisa A. Matsuda; Stephen J. Lolait; Michael J. Browns...; Alice C. Young; Tom I. Bonner
• Keywords: Cerebral Cortex; 0301 basic medicine; Base Sequence; Cannabinoids; Receptors, Drug; Colforsin; Molecular Sequence Data; Transfection; Binding, Competitive; Cell Line; Rats; 3. Good health; Kinetics; 03 medical and health sciences; Cyclic AMP; Animals; Amino Acid Sequence; Cloning, Molecular; Receptors, Cannabinoid; Gene Library

Marijuana and many of its constituent cannabinoids influence the central nervous system (CNS) in a complex and dose-dependent manner. Although CNS depression and analgesia are well documented effects of the cannabinoids, the mechanisms responsible for these and other cannabinoid-induced effects are not so far known. The hydrophobic nature of these substances has suggested that cannabinoids resemble anaesthetic agents in their action, that is, they nonspecifically disrupt cellular membranes. Recent evidence, however, has supported a mechanism involving a G protein-coupled receptor found in brain and neural cell lines, and which inhibits adenylate cyclase activity in a dose-dependent, stereoselective and pertussis toxin-sensitive manner. Also, the receptor is more responsive to psychoactive cannabinoids than to non-psychoactive cannabinoids. Here we report the cloning and expression of a complementary DNA that encodes a G protein-coupled receptor with all of these properties. Its messenger RNA is found in cell lines and regions of the brain that have cannabinoid receptors. These findings suggest that this protein is involved in cannabinoid-induced CNS effects (including alterations in mood and cognition) experienced by users of marijuana.