Cannabidiol inhibits Nav channels through two distinct binding sites

Jian Huang, Xiao Fan, Xueqin Jin, Sooyeon Jo, Hanxiong Bear Zhang, Akie Fujita, Bruce P. Bean () and Nieng Yan ()
Additional contact information
Jian Huang: Princeton University
Xiao Fan: Princeton University
Xueqin Jin: Tsinghua University
Sooyeon Jo: Harvard Medical School
Hanxiong Bear Zhang: Harvard Medical School
Akie Fujita: Harvard Medical School
Bruce P. Bean: Harvard Medical School
Nieng Yan: Princeton University

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Cannabidiol (CBD), a major non-psychoactive phytocannabinoid in cannabis, is an effective treatment for some forms of epilepsy and pain. At high concentrations, CBD interacts with a huge variety of proteins, but which targets are most relevant for clinical actions is still unclear. Here we show that CBD interacts with Nav1.7 channels at sub-micromolar concentrations in a state-dependent manner. Electrophysiological experiments show that CBD binds to the inactivated state of Nav1.7 channels with a dissociation constant of about 50 nM. The cryo-EM structure of CBD bound to Nav1.7 channels reveals two distinct binding sites. One is in the IV-I fenestration near the upper pore. The other binding site is directly next to the inactivated “wedged” position of the Ile/Phe/Met (IFM) motif on the short linker between repeats III and IV, which mediates fast inactivation. Consistent with producing a direct stabilization of the inactivated state, mutating residues in this binding site greatly reduced state-dependent binding of CBD. The identification of this binding site may enable design of compounds with improved properties compared to CBD itself.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39307-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-39307-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39307-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().