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Anti-Inflammatory Properties of KLS-13019: a Novel GPR55 Antagonist for Dorsal Root Ganglion and Hippocampal Cultures

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Abstract

KLS-13019, a novel devised cannabinoid-like compound, was explored for anti-inflammatory actions in dorsal root ganglion cultures relevant to chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). Time course studies with 3 µM paclitaxel indicated > 1.9-fold increases in immunoreactive (IR) area for cell body GPR55 after 30 min as determined by high content imaging. To test for reversibility of paclitaxel-induced increases in GPR55, cultures were treated for 8 h with paclitaxel alone and then a dose response to KLS-13019 added for another 16 h. This “reversal” paradigm indicated established increases in cell body GPR55 IR areas were decreased back to control levels. Because GPR55 had previously reported inflammatory actions, IL-1β and NLRP3 (inflammasome-3 marker) were also measured in the “reversal” paradigm. Significant increases in all inflammatory markers were produced after 8 h of paclitaxel treatment alone that were reversed to control levels with KLS-13019 treatment. Accompanying studies using alamar blue indicated that decreased cellular viability produced by paclitaxel treatment was reverted back to control levels by KLS-13019. Similar studies conducted with lysophosphatidylinositol (GPR55 agonist) in DRG or hippocampal cultures demonstrated significant increases in neuritic GPR55, NLRP3 and IL-1β areas that were reversed to control levels with KLS-13019 treatment. Studies with a human GPR55-β-arrestin assay in Discover X cells indicated that KLS-13019 was an antagonist without agonist activity. These studies indicated that KLS-13019 has anti-inflammatory properties mediated through GPR55 antagonist actions. Together with previous studies, KLS-13019 is a potent neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory cannabinoid with therapeutic potential for high efficacy treatment of neuropathic pain.

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Data Availability

Data analyzed in these studies are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

These studies were supported by Grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R41DA044898); (5P30DA013429-20); (RO1DA045698); and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R42NS120548) of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center, Kannalife Sciences, Inc, 3805 Old Easton Road, Doylestown, PA, 18902, USA

    Douglas E. Brenneman, William A. Kinney & Mark E. McDonnell

  2. Center for Substance Abuse Research, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, 19140, USA

    Pingei Zhao & Mary E. Abood

  3. Center for Substance Abuse Research, Department of Pharmacology, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, 19140, USA

    Sara Jane Ward

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  1. Douglas E. Brenneman
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  2. William A. Kinney
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  3. Mark E. McDonnell
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  4. Pingei Zhao
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  5. Mary E. Abood
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  6. Sara Jane Ward
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Contributions

Douglas Brenneman designed and conducted all experiments using primary neuronal cultures and wrote the draft of the manuscript. William Kinney and Mark McDonnell chemically designed and provided the purified, structurally verified KLS-13019. Pingei Zhao conducted the β-arrestin assays and authored Fig. 7. Mary Abood provided intellectual input on GPR55 and second messenger systems relevant to study design. Sara Jane Ward provided intellectual input on study design pertaining to inflammation. Editing contributions were made by Brenneman, McDonnell, and Ward. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Douglas E. Brenneman.

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Competing Interests

Drs Brenneman, Kinney and McDonnell are inventors of KLS-13019 and hold international patents on this technology.

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No animal or human subject data were in this work. Animal tissues for primary cultures were purchased from a commercial source.

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No human subjects were in these studies.

Conflict of Interest

Douglas Brenneman, William Kinney, and Mark McDonnell are inventors of KLS-13019 and hold international patents on the technology described.

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Brenneman, D.E., Kinney, W.A., McDonnell, M.E. et al. Anti-Inflammatory Properties of KLS-13019: a Novel GPR55 Antagonist for Dorsal Root Ganglion and Hippocampal Cultures. J Mol Neurosci 72, 1859–1874 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-022-02038-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-022-02038-2

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