JWH-200 (WIN 55,225) is an analgesic chemical from the aminoalkylindole family that acts as a cannabinoid receptor agonist. Its binding affinity, Ki at the CB1 receptor is 42 nM, around the same as that of THC, but its analgesic potency in vivo was higher than that of other analogues with stronger CB1 binding affinity in vitro, around 3 times that of THC but with less sedative effect, most likely reflecting favourable pharmacokinetic characteristics. It was discovered by, and named after, John W. Huffman.
JWH-176 is an analgesic drug which acts as a cannabinoid receptor agonist. Its binding affinity at the CB1 receptor is 26.0 nM, making it more potent than THC itself, however JWH-176 is particularly notable in that it is a hydrocarbon containing no heteroatoms. This demonstrates that reasonably high-affinity cannabinoid binding and agonist effects can be produced by compounds with no hydrogen bonding capacity at all, relying merely on Van der Waals interactions to bind to the receptor. It was discovered by, and named after, John W. Huffman.
JWH-250 or (1-pentyl-3-(2-methoxyphenylacetyl)indole) is an analgesic chemical from the phenylacetylindole family that acts as a cannabinoid agonist at both the CB1 and CB2 receptors, with a Ki of 11 nM at CB1 and 33 nM at CB2. Unlike many of the older JWH series compounds, this compound does not have a naphthalene ring, instead occupying this position with a 2'-methoxy-phenylacetyl group, making JWH-250 a representative member of a new class of cannabinoid ligands. Other 2'-substituted analogues such as the methyl, chloro and bromo compounds are also active and somewhat more potent.
JWH-203 (1-pentyl-3-(2-chlorophenylacetyl)indole) is an analgesic chemical from the phenylacetylindole family that acts as a cannabinoid agonist with approximately equal affinity at both the CB1 and CB2 receptors, having a Ki of 8.0 nM at CB1 and 7.0 nM at CB2. It was originally discovered by, and named after, Dr. John W. Huffman, but has subsequently been sold without his permission as an ingredient of synthetic cannabis smoking blends. Similar to the related 2'-methoxy compound JWH-250, the 2'-bromo compound JWH-249, and the 2'-methyl compound JWH-251, JWH-203 has a phenylacetyl group in place of the naphthoyl ring used in most aminoalkylindole cannabinoid compounds, and has the strongest in vitro binding affinity for the cannabinoid receptors of any compound in the phenylacetyl group.
JWH-210 is an analgesic chemical from the naphthoylindole family, which acts as a potent cannabinoid agonist at both the CB1 and CB2 receptors, with Ki values of 0.46 nM at CB1 and 0.69 nM at CB2. It is one of the most potent 4-substituted naphthoyl derivatives in the naphthoylindole series, having a higher binding affinity (i.e. lower Ki) at CB1 than both its 4-methyl and 4-n-propyl homologues JWH-122 (CB1 Ki 0.69 nM) and JWH-182 (CB1 Ki 0.65 nM) respectively, and than the 4-methoxy compound JWH-081 (CB1 Ki 1.2 nM). It was discovered by and named after John W. Huffman.
JWH-007 is an analgesic chemical from the naphthoylindole family, which acts as a cannabinoid agonist at both the CB1 and CB2 receptors. It was the most active of the first group of N-alkyl naphoylindoles discovered by the team led by John W Huffman, several years after the family was initially described with the discovery of the N-morpholinylethyl compounds pravadoline (WIN 48,098), JWH-200 (WIN 55,225) and WIN 55,212-2 by the Sterling Winthrop group. Several other N-alkyl substituents were found to be active by Huffman's team including the n-butyl, n-hexyl, 2-heptyl, and cyclohexylethyl groups, but it was subsequently determined that the 2-methyl group on the indole ring is not required for CB1 binding, and tends to increase affinity for CB2 instead. Consequently, the 2-desmethyl derivative of JWH-007, JWH-018, has slightly higher binding affinity for CB1, with an optimum binding of 9.00 nM at CB1 and 2.94 nM at CB2, and JWH-007 displayed optimum binding of 9.50 nM at CB1 and 2.94 nM at CB2.
JWH-164 is a synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist from the naphthoylindole family. It has approximately equal affinity for the CB1 and CB2 receptors, with a Ki of 6.6 nM at CB1 and 6.9 nM at CB2. JWH-164 is a positional isomer of the related compound JWH-081, but with a methoxy group at the 7-position of the naphthyl ring, rather than the 4-position as in JWH-081. Its potency is intermediate between that of JWH-081 and its ring unsubstituted derivative JWH-018, demonstrating that substitution of the naphthyl 7-position can also result in increased cannabinoid receptor binding affinity.
JWH-098 is a synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist from the naphthoylindole family. It is the indole 2-methyl derivative of a closely related compound JWH-081, but has markedly different affinity for the CB1 and CB2 receptors. While JWH-081 is around ten fold selective for CB1 over CB2, in JWH-098 this is reversed, and it is around four times weaker than JWH-081 at CB1 while being six times more potent at CB2, giving it a slight selectivity for CB2 overall. This makes JWH-098 a good example of how methylation of the indole 2-position in the naphthoylindole series tends to increase CB2 affinity, but often at the expense of CB1 binding.
JWH-167 (1-pentyl-3-(phenylacetyl)indole) is a synthetic cannabinoid from the phenylacetylindole family, which acts as a cannabinoid agonist with about 1.75 times selectivity for CB1 with a Ki of 90 nM ± 17 and 159 nM ± 14 at CB2. Similar to the related 2'-methoxy compound JWH-250, and the 2'-chloro compound JWH-203, JWH-167 has a phenylacetyl group in place of the naphthoyl ring used in most aminoalkylindole cannabinoid compounds.
JWH-249 (1-pentyl-3-(2-bromophenylacetyl)indole) is a synthetic cannabinoid from the phenylacetylindole family, which acts as a cannabinoid agonist with about 2.4 times selectivity for CB1 with a Ki of 8.4 ± 1.8 nM and 20 ± 2 nM at CB2. Similar to the related 2'-methoxy compound JWH-250, the 2'-chloro compound JWH-203, and the 2'-methyl compound JWH-251, JWH-249 has a phenylacetyl group in place of the naphthoyl ring used in most aminoalkylindole cannabinoid compounds.
JWH-251 (1-pentyl-3-(2-methylphenylacetyl)indole) is a synthetic cannabinoid from the phenylacetylindole family, which acts as a cannabinoid agonist with about five times selectivity for CB1 with a Ki of 29 nM and 146 nM at CB2. Similar to the related 2'-methoxy compound JWH-250, the 2'-chloro compound JWH-203, and the 2'-bromo compound JWH-249, JWH-251 has a phenylacetyl group in place of the naphthoyl ring used in most aminoalkylindole cannabinoid compounds.
JWH-424 is a drug from the naphthoylindole family, which acts as a cannabinoid agonist at both the CB1 and CB2 receptors, but with moderate selectivity for CB2, having a Ki of 5.44nM at CB2 vs 20.9 nM at CB1. The heavier 8-iodo analogue is even more CB2 selective, with its 2-methyl derivative having 40 times selectivity for CB2. However the 1-propyl homologues in this series showed much lower affinity at both receptors, reflecting a generally reduced affinity for the 8-substituted naphthoylindoles overall.
JWH-198 is a drug from the aminoalkylindole and naphthoylindole families which acts as a cannabinoid receptor agonist. It was invented by the pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Winthrop in the early 1990s. JWH-198 has a binding affinity at the CB1 receptor of 10 nM, binding around four times more tightly than the parent compound JWH-200, which has no substitution on the naphthoyl ring. It has been used mainly in molecular modelling of the cannabinoid receptors.
JWH-193 is a drug from the aminoalkylindole and naphthoylindole families which acts as a cannabinoid receptor agonist. It was invented by the pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Winthrop in the early 1990s. JWH-193 has a binding affinity at the CB1 receptor of 6 nM, binding around seven times more tightly than the parent compound JWH-200, though with closer to twice the potency of JWH-200 in activity tests.
JWH-302 (1-pentyl-3-(3-methoxyphenylacetyl)indole) is an analgesic chemical from the phenylacetylindole family, which acts as a cannabinoid agonist with moderate affinity at both the CB1 and CB2 receptors. It is a positional isomer of the more common drug JWH-250, though it is slightly less potent with a Ki of 17 nM at CB1, compared to 11 nM for JWH-250. Because of their identical molecular weight and similar fragmentation patterns, JWH-302 and JWH-250 can be very difficult to distinguish by GC-MS testing.
JWH-175 is a drug from the naphthylmethylindole family which acts as a cannabinoid receptor agonist. It was invented by the scientist John W. Huffman and colleagues at Clemson University. JWH-175 is closely related to the widely used cannabinoid designer drug JWH-018, but with the ketone bridge replaced by a simpler methylene bridge. It is several times weaker than JWH-018, having a binding affinity at the CB1 receptor of 22 nM, though some derivatives substituted at the 4-position of the naphthyl ring have potency more closely approaching that of the equivalent naphthoylindoles. This makes JWH-175 considerably less potent than most synthetic cannabinoid drugs used in synthetic cannabis blends, and it is unclear if JWH-175 has ever been used for this purpose. However it has still been explicitly banned in several jurisdictions including Russia and some Australian states, in order to stop its potential use as an ingredient in such products. In the United States, all CB1 receptor agonists of the 3-(1-naphthylmethane)indole class such as JWH-175 are Schedule I Controlled Substances.
MN-25 (UR-12) is a drug invented by Bristol-Myers Squibb, that acts as a reasonably selective agonist of peripheral cannabinoid receptors. It has moderate affinity for CB2 receptors with a Ki of 11 nM, but 22x lower affinity for the psychoactive CB1 receptors with a Ki of 245 nM. The indole 2-methyl derivative has the ratio of affinities reversed however, with a Ki of 8 nM at CB1 and 29 nM at CB2, which contrasts with the usual trend of 2-methyl derivatives having increased selectivity for CB2 (cf. JWH-018 vs JWH-007, JWH-081 vs JWH-098).
JWH-116 is a synthetic cannabinoid receptor ligand from the naphthoylindole family. It is the indole 2-ethyl derivative of related compound JWH-018. The binding affinity of JWH-116 for the CB1 receptor is reported as Ki = 52 ± 5 nM.
JWH-184 is a synthetic cannabinoid receptor ligand from the naphthylmethylindole family. It is the carbonyl-reduced derivative of related compound JWH-122. The binding affinity of JWH-184 for the CB1 receptor is reported as Ki = 23 ± 6 nM.
JWH-148 is a synthetic cannabimimetic that was discovered by John W. Huffman. It is the indole 2-methyl analog of JWH-120. It is a moderately selective ligand for the CB2 receptor, with a binding affinity of Ki = 14.0 ± 1.0 nM at this subtype, and more than eight times selectivity over the CB1 subtype.
