Ligand discrimination during virtual screening of the CB1 cannabinoid receptor crystal structures following cross-docking and microsecond molecular dynamics simulations.

The therapeutic potential of the CB1 cannabinoid receptor remains underexploited with only a few synthetic ligands on the market. The crystal structures of both the inactive and active-state CB1 receptor have recently been solved, allowing for unprecedented opportunities in structure-based drug discovery applications such as virtual screening. In this study, we have investigated the virtual screening performance of the active and inactive-state CB1 crystal structures and their ability to discriminate between agonist and inverse agonist/antagonist ligands.