Aminoalkylindoles (AAIs) are a family of
cannabinergic
Cannabinoidergic, or cannabinergic, means "working on the endocannabinoid neurotransmitters". As with terms such as dopaminergic and serotonergic, related proteins and cellular components involved endocannabinoid signaling, such as the cannabi ...
compound that act as a
cannabinoid
Cannabinoids () are several structural classes of compounds found in the cannabis plant primarily and most animal organisms (although insects lack such receptors) or as synthetic compounds. The most notable cannabinoid is the phytocannabinoid tet ...
receptor
Receptor may refer to:
*Sensory receptor, in physiology, any structure which, on receiving environmental stimuli, produces an informative nerve impulse
*Receptor (biochemistry), in biochemistry, a protein molecule that receives and responds to a n ...
agonist
An agonist is a chemical that activates a receptor to produce a biological response. Receptors are cellular proteins whose activation causes the cell to modify what it is currently doing. In contrast, an antagonist blocks the action of the ag ...
. They were invented by pharmaceutical company
Sterling-Winthrop
Sterling Drug was an American global pharmaceutical company, also known as Sterling Winthrop, Inc. in its last years (after the merger with Winthrop-Stearns Inc. which itself resulted from the merger of ''Winthrop Chemical Company Inc.'' and ' ...
in the early 1990s as potential
nonsteroidal A nonsteroidal compound is a drug that is not a steroid nor a steroid derivative. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are distinguished from corticosteroids as a class of anti-inflammatory agents.
List of nonsteroidal steroid receptor mo ...
anti-inflammatory agents.
Legality
Aminoalkylindoles are now commonly found in
synthetic cannabis designer drugs
A designer drug is a structural or functional analog of a controlled substance that has been designed to mimic the pharmacological effects of the original drug, while avoiding classification as illegal and/or detection in standard drug tests. D ...
.
In the United States, the DEA added the aminoalkylindoles
JWH-200
JWH-200 (WIN 55,225) is an analgesic chemical from the aminoalkylindole family that acts as a cannabinoid receptor agonist. Its binding affinity, ''K''i at the CB1 receptor is 42 nM, around the same as that of THC, but its analgesic potenc ...
to Schedule I of the
Controlled Substances Act
The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) is the statute establishing federal U.S. drug policy under which the manufacture, importation, possession, use, and distribution of certain substances is regulated. It was passed by the 91st United States ...
on 1 March 2011 for 12 months.
References
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External links
Aminoalkylindoles ChEBI
Chemical Entities of Biological Interest, also known as ChEBI, is a chemical database and ontology of molecular entities focused on 'small' chemical compounds, that is part of the Open Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) effort at the European Bioinfor ...