Obesity has reached epidemic proportions and in a year about 300,000 people die of obesity-related diseases. Annual medical spending due to obesity and overweight is about $117 billion. There is an urgent need to discover effective drugs to treat this disease since existing drugs have modest efficacy and significant side effects. A potentially promising target for anti-obesity drugs is the cannabinoid (CB1) receptor. In Phase I of this proposal our focus will be on the structural optimization of our novel THC/anandamide template to discover one or more CB1 receptor antagonists. In order to distinguish between agonist and antagonist activity, analogs that bind effectively to the CB1 receptor, will be evaluated for their ability to stimulate [35S]GTPgS binding. Our specific objective is to discover and select the best analogs in this series that manifest in vivo activity in a mouse model for appetite suppression. If the above objective is accomplished in Phase I, we will have a drug candidate for further development in Phase II. The long-term objective of this proposal is to develop a novel anti-obesity drug that is both safe and effective.
