Professor Roger Pertwee
Professor of Neuropharmacology and Director of Pharmacology, GW Pharmaceuticals
Personal Details
| Telephone: | +44 (0)1224 555740/+44 (0)1224 555744 |
| E-mail: | rgp@abdn.ac.uk |
| Address: | School of Medical Sciences Institute of Medical Sciences University of Aberdeen Foresterhill Aberdeen AB25 2ZD Scotland, UK |
Web Links
http://www.cannabinoidsociety.org/ (ICRS; International Cannabinoid Research Society)
http://www.acmed.org/ (IACM; International Association for Cannabis as Medicine)
http://f1000biology.com/home/ (Faculty of 1000)
http://www.endocannabinoid.net/ (ECSN; Endocannabinoid System Network)
http://www.endocannabinoid.net/slides.aspx?view=talk&talkId=102 (ECSN Slide Presentation: Cannabinoid Receptor Agonism)
http://www.iuphar-db.org/GPCR/ContributorsDisplayForward?chapterID=1279 (IUPHAR; Cannabinoid Receptor Nomenclature)
Pertwee at http://isihighlycited.com/ (ISI Web of Knowledge)
http://www.talentscotland.com/view_item.aspx?item_id=3976 (Scottish Enterprise/Talent Scotland Website)
Biography
Roger Pertwee's research focuses on the pharmacology of cannabinoids. He began his work in this area in 1968 as a post-doc with Professor Sir William Paton at the Department of Pharmacology, Oxford University. He initially worked with cannabis and also with delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol, both of which were extracted from tincture of cannabis, then still a legal medicine in the UK. This research led to the demonstration that cannabidiol is a highly effective inhibitor of hepatic microsomal enzymes and to the development of the "ring immobility test", still widely used as a behavioural bioassay.
After moving to Aberdeen in 1974, Roger Pertwee continued with his cannabinoid research, initially investigating the basis for the hypothermic effect of THC. This work provided evidence that THC lowers the thermoregulatory set point such that animals regulate their core temperature at a lower level than normal by adjusting heat gain and heat loss both autonomically and behaviourally. In other research carried out during this time he found that cannabinoids interact synergistically with benzodiazepines and also identified the globus pallidus as one of the sites at which cannabinoids alter motor function.
Opioid research with the mouse isolated vas deferens being carried out in Hans Kosterlitz's lab in Aberdeen gave Roger Pertwee the opportunity to establish whether this tissue would also serve as a bioassay for cannabinoids. The mouse vas deferens turned out to be an extremely sensitive quantitative assay for CB1 agonists. He presented some of the initial vas deferens data at a cannabinoid meeting in Palm Beach in 1991 and this led to a collaboration with Professor Raphael Mechoulam who was also at the meeting. As a result, using the mouse vas deferens, Roger Pertwee (with Graeme Griffin) was able to provide the first evidence that anandamide not only binds to cannabinoid receptors (Dr William Devane's data) but also activates these receptors, greatly strengthening the argument that anandamide is an endogenous cannabinoid [Science (1992) 258:1946]. Since then he and his research group have gone on to characterize novel synthetic cannabinoids, for example the first water soluble cannabinoid receptor agonist, O-1057 (in collaboration with Drs Billy Martin and Raj Razdan), the first CB1-selective agonists methanandamide (with Dr Alexandros Makriyannis), ACEA and ACPA (with Dr. Cecelia Hillard), and one of the first cannabinoid receptor antagonists, AM630 (with Dr. Alexandros Makriyannis, Dr Ruth Ross and Graeme Griffin). This research was conducted using not only the mouse vas deferens and other isolated tissue preparations but also radioligand binding assays and in vitro bioassays that measure drug effects on cannabinoid receptor signalling (adenylate cyclase and GTPgammaS binding assays). Other research in his laboratory, led by Dr Angela Coutts, was directed at mapping out the distribution of cannabinoid receptors in brain and gut using immunohistochemical techniques.
Roger Pertwee is Professor of Neuropharmacology at the University of Aberdeen. He is also co-chair of the International Union of Pharmacology (IUPHAR) Subcommittee on Cannabinoid Receptors, co-ordinator of the British Pharmacological Society's Special Interest Group on Cannabinoids, visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire and Director of Pharmacology for GW Pharmaceuticals, heading the GW Institute of Cannabinoid Research at Aberdeen. Roger Pertwee previously also headed a Medical Research Council-funded Co-operative Group for Cannabinoid Research at Aberdeen University and in 2002 received the Mechoulam Award "for his outstanding contributions to cannabinoid research". He is also listed by ISI Web of Knowledge as an "ISI Highly Cited Researcher" (see Pertwee at http://isihighlycited.com/) and is an invited member of F1000 (FACULTY OF 1000) [http://www.f1000biology.com/home].
A founding member of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS; http://www.cannabinoidsociety.org/), Roger Pertwee is currently ICRS president (2007-2008) and ICRS International Secretary. He served as elected ICRS president from 1997 to 1998 and is a past First Chairman of the International Association for Cannabis as Medicine (http://www.acmed.org/) (2005-2007) and currently a member of the Board of Directors of the IACM and its "Second Chairman". He is also a member both of the Faculty of 1000 (http://f1000biology.com/home/) and of the working group of the Endocannabinoid System Network (ECSN) (http://www.endocannabinoid.net/), the main purpose of which is to help scientists and clinicians understand the physiology, pathology, pharmacology and clinical significance of the endocannabinoid system by providing an interactive web site. He presented evidence on cannabis at the House of Lords to the Science and Technology Committee which published its report on cannabis in 1998. He is the author of numerous review articles on the cannabinoids and is often invited to speak on the pharmacology of cannabinoids at international conferences. He is also interested in the therapeutic potential of cannabinoids. Indeed, he was a contributing author of the British Medical Association book entitled "Therapeutic Uses of Cannabis." and served on the Royal Pharmaceutical Society working party that recommended and helped to design clinical trials with cannabis and THC that were carried out in the UK and funded by the Medical Research Council. Together with Drs Rik Musty and Paul Consroe he also carried out the first large survey of MS patients who self-medicate with cannabis [Eur Neurol (1997) 38: 44].
Roger Pertwee's current research is directed at elucidating the pharmacological actions of plant cannabinoids such as cannabidiol and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV). In addition, he and his collaborators in Aberdeen are currently following up a discovery made in his laboratory that there is at least one allosteric site on the cannabinoid CB1 receptor and are also exploring the pharmacology of the putative cannabinoid receptor, GPR55. His research is supported by the BBSRC, by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (part of NIH) and by GW Pharmaceuticals.
Research Interests
Primary research interests:
· pharmacology and therapeutic potential of plant cannabinoids
· pharmacology of allosteric sites on cannabinoid receptors
· novel cannabinoid CB1 and CB2 receptor ligands
· new pharmacological targets for cannabinoids
· roles of the endocannabinoid system in health and disease
Current Research
Roger Pertwee's current research is directed at elucidating the pharmacological actions of plant cannabinoids such as cannabidiol and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV). In addition, he and his collaborators in Aberdeen are currently following up a discovery made in his laboratory that there is at least one allosteric site on the cannabinoid CB1 receptor and are also exploring the pharmacology of the putative cannabinoid receptor, GPR55.
Selected Publications
Pertwee, R.G. (2009) Emerging strategies for exploiting cannabinoid receptor agonists as medicines. Br. J. Pharmacol. 156: 397-411.
Pertwee, R.G. (2008) The diverse CB1 and CB2 receptor pharmacology of three plant cannabinoids: delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabidiol and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabivarin. Br. J. Pharmacol. 153: 199-215.
Maresz, K., Pryce, G., Ponomarev, E.D., Marsicano, G., Croxford, J.L., Shriver, L.P., Ledent, C., Cheng, X., Carrier, E.J., Mann, M.K., Giovannoni, G., Pertwee, R.G., Yamamura, T., Buckley, N.E., Hillard, C.J., Lutz, B., Baker, D. and Dittel, B.N. (2007) Direct suppression of CNS autoimmune Inflammation via the cannabinoid receptor CB1 on neurons and CB2 on autoreactive T cells. Nature Med. 13: 492-497.
Pertwee, R.G. (2007) GPR55: a new member of the cannabinoid receptor clan? Br. J. Pharmacol. 152: 984-986
Thomas, A., Baillie, G.L., Phillips, A.M., Razdan, R.K., Ross, R.A. and Pertwee, R.G. (2007) Cannabidiol displays unexpectedly high potency as a CB1 and CB2 receptor antagonist in vitro. Br. J. Pharmacol. 150: 613-623
Pertwee, R.G., Thomas, A., Stevenson, L.A., Ross, R.A., Varvel, S.A., Lichtman, A.H., Martin, B.R. and Razdan, R.K. (2007) The psychoactive plant cannabinoid, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is antagonized by delta-8- and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabivarin in mice in vivo. Br. J. Pharmacol. 150: 586-594.
Pertwee, R.G. (2007) Cannabinoids and multiple sclerosis. Mol. Neurobiol. 36: 45-59.
Pertwee, R.G. (2006) Cannabinoid pharmacology: the first 66 years. BPS 75th Anniversary Supplement. Br. J. Pharmacol. Volume 147 (S1) S163-S171.
Price, M.R., Baillie, G.L., Thomas, A., Stevenson, L.A., Easson, M., Goodwin, R., McLean, A., McIntosh, L., Goodwin, G., Walker, G., Westwood, P., Marrs, J., Thomson, F., Cowley, P., Christopoulos, A., Pertwee, R.G. & Ross, R.A. (2005) Allosteric modulation of the cannabinoid CB1 receptor. Mol. Pharmacol. 68: 1484–1495.
Thomas, A., Stevenson, L.A., Wease, K.N., Price, M.R., Baillie, G., Ross, R.A. and Pertwee, R.G. (2005) Evidence that the plant cannabinoid delta-9-tetrahydrocannabivarin is a cannabinoid CB1 and CB2 receptor antagonist. Br. J. Pharmacol. 146: 917-926.
Pertwee, R.G. (2005) Cannabinoid receptors and their ligands. In: Cannabinoids. (ed. Pertwee, R.G.). Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology. Volume 168, pp. 1-51. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg.
Pertwee, R.G. (2005) Inverse agonism and neutral antagonism at cannabinoid CB1 receptors. Life Sci. 76: 1307-1324.
Howlett, A.C., Barth, F., Bonner, T.I., Cabral, G., Casellas, P., Devane, W.A., Felder, C.C., Herkenham, M., Mackie, K., Martin, B.R., Mechoulam, R. and Pertwee, R.G. (2002) International Union of Pharmacology. XXVII. Classification of Cannabinoid Receptors. Pharmacol. Rev. 54: 161-202.
For a more complete publications list (up to 2004/5) see Pertwee at http://isihighlycited.com/