Development of Endocannabinoid-Based Chemical Probes for the Study of Cannabinoid Receptors

We report the synthesis of new chemical probes (1a,b, 2a–c, 3a–c) based on the structure of the main endocannabinoids for their use in biological systems directly or via click chemistry. As proof of concept, 2-arachidonyl glyceryl ether based biotinylated 3b enables direct visualization of CB1 receptor in cells. These results represent the starting point for the development of advanced small molecule chemical probes able to generate valuable information about the cannabinoid receptors.