JWH-198 is a drug from the aminoalkylindole family which acts as a cannabinoid receptor

Receptor (biochemistry)

In biochemistry, a receptor is a molecule found on the surface of a cell, which receives specific chemical signals from neighbouring cells or the wider environment within an organism...

 agonist

Agonist

An agonist is a chemical that binds to a receptor of a cell and triggers a response by that cell. Agonists often mimic the action of a naturally occurring substance...

. It was invented by the pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Winthrop in the early 1990s. JWH-198 has a binding affinity

Dissociation constant

In chemistry, biochemistry, and pharmacology, a dissociation constant is a specific type of equilibrium constant that measures the propensity of a larger object to separate reversibly into smaller components, as when a complex falls apart into its component molecules, or when a salt splits up into...

 at the CB₁ receptor of 10nM, binding around four times more tightly than the parent compound JWH-200

JWH-200

JWH-200 is an analgesic chemical from the aminoalkylindole family, which acts as a cannabinoid receptor agonist. Its binding affinity at the CB1 receptor is 42nM, around the same as that of THC, but its analgesic potency in vivo was higher than that of other analogues with stronger CB1 binding...

, which has no substitution on the naphthoyl ring. It has been used mainly in molecular modelling

Molecular modelling

Molecular modelling encompasses all theoretical methods and computational techniques used to model or mimic the behaviour of molecules. The techniques are used in the fields of computational chemistry, computational biology and materials science for studying molecular systems ranging from small...

of the cannabinoid receptors.