Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are vascular lesions in the central nervous system causing strokes and seizures which currently can only be treated through neurosurgery. The disease arises through changes in the regulatory networks of endothelial cells that must be comprehensively understood to develop alternative, non‐invasive pharmacological therapies. Here, we present the results of several unbiased small‐molecule suppression screens in which we applied a total of 5,268 unique substances to CCM mutant worm, zebrafish, mouse, or human endothelial cells. We used a systems biology‐based target prediction tool to integrate the results with the whole‐transcriptome profile of zebrafish CCM2 mutants, revealing signaling pathways relevant to the disease and potential targets for small‐molecule‐based therapies. We found indirubin‐3‐monoxime to alleviate the lesion burden in murine preclinical models of CCM2 and CCM3 and suppress the loss‐of‐CCM phenotypes in human endothelial cells. Our multi‐organism‐based approach reveals new components of the CCM regulatory network and foreshadows novel small‐molecule‐based therapeutic applications for suppressing this devastating disease in patients.

Autotaxin is primarily known for the formation of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) from lysophosphatidylcholine. LPA is an important signaling phospholipid that can bind to six G protein–coupled receptors (LPA1–6). The ATX-LPA signaling axis is a critical component in many physiological and pathophysiological conditions. Here, we describe a potent inhibition of Δ9-trans-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive compound of medicinal cannabis and related cannabinoids, on the catalysis of two isoforms of ATX with nanomolar apparent EC50values. Furthermore, we decipher the binding interface of ATX to THC, and its derivative 9(R)-Δ6a,10a-THC (6a10aTHC), by X-ray crystallography. Cellular experiments confirm this inhibitory effect, revealing a significant reduction of internalized LPA1in the presence of THC with simultaneous ATX and lysophosphatidylcholine stimulation. Our results establish a functional interaction of THC with autotaxin–LPA signaling and highlight novel aspects of medicinal cannabis therapy.

Diversity-Oriented Synthesis (DOS) represents a strategy to obtain molecule libraries with diverse structural features starting from one common compound in limited steps of synthesis. During the last two decades, DOS has become an unmissable strategy in organic synthesis and is fully integrated in various drug discovery processes. On the other hand, natural products with multiple relevant pharmacological properties have been extensively investigated as scaffolds for ligand-based drug design. In this article, we report the amino dimethoxyacetophenones that can be easily synthesized and scaled up from the commercially available 3,5-dimethoxyaniline as valuable starting blocks for the DOS of natural product analogs. More focus is placed on the synthesis of analogs of flavones, coumarins, azocanes, chalcones, and aurones, which are frequently studied as lead compounds in drug discovery.