# Systematic Investigation of Rare Cannabinoids with Pain Receptors

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN · 2020 · $182,291

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Remedies derived from the cannabis plants have been used for management of pain for centuries. Recent
understanding of the clinical effects of cannabis and the corresponding cannabinoids in the treatment of pain
has been focused on two major phytocannabinoids, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD).
Though effective, these compounds cause sedation and drowsiness. On the other hand, there are more than
110 known minor phytocannabinoids; however, only a few limited studies related to their analgesic properties
exists to date. The major obstacle in studying rare cannabinoids is their limited availability. Numerous
purifications of plant extracts mixtures usually provide only milligram quantities of pure compounds from
kilograms of plant material, making such endeavors highly nonpractical as well as unsustainable. In fact, most
of minor phytocannabinoids are not commercially available or listed in NIDA’s Drug Supply Program (DSP). As
synthetic organic chemists and biologists, uniquely situated at the interface of chemistry and biology, our
research programs are devoted to providing solutions to the supply problem in the form of sustainable and
practical syntheses as well as performing fundamental biological studies. By providing an access to rare
phytochemicals by synthetic means, we expect to remove the barrier of supply as a prerequisite for studying
their analgesic properties. Specifically, this proposal describes synthetic approaches to several classes of rare
phytocannabinoids and systematic evaluation of their anti-inflammatory potential in microglial cells. Minor
cannabinoids with strong anti-inflammatory will undergo further evaluation towards their agonism/antagonism of
major endogenous pain circuitry systems including cannabinoid receptors (CB1, CB2, GPR55) and
vanilloid/transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V (TRPV), subfamily A (TRPA), subfamily M
(TRPM). It is expected that these studies will establish well-defined pharmacological properties of rare
phytocannabinoids with respect to the major receptors involved in pain sensation.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10018722
- **Project number:** 5R21AT010761-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
- **Principal Investigator:** Aditi Das
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $182,291
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-15 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10018722

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10018722, Systematic Investigation of Rare Cannabinoids with Pain Receptors (5R21AT010761-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10018722. Licensed CC0.

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