Targeting fatty acid binding protein (FABP) anandamide transporters - a novel strategy for development of anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive drugs.

ABSTRACT: Fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs), in particular FABP5 and FABP7, have recently been identified by us as intracellular transporters for the endocannabinoid anandamide (AEA). Furthermore, animal studies by others have shown that elevated levels of endocannabinoids resulted in beneficial pharmacological effects on stress, pain and inflammation and also ameliorate the effects of drug withdrawal. Based on these observations, we hypothesized that FABP5 and FABP7 would provide excellent pharmacological targets. Thus, we performed a virtual screening of over one million compounds using DOCK and employed a novel footprint similarity scoring function to identify lead compounds with binding profiles similar to oleic acid, a natural FABP substrate. Forty-eight compounds were purchased based on thei

SUBMITTER: Berger WT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3517626 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature