“To determine whether cannabis use during adolescence can increase risk not only for cannabis use disorder (CUD) but also for conduct problems, potentially mediated by exposure to peers who use cannabis.
Monthly Archives: November 2018
Lipid nanocapsules decorated and loaded with cannabidiol as targeted prolonged release carriers for glioma therapy: in vitro screening of critical parameters.
“The therapeutic potential of cannabinoids has been truly constrained heretofore due to their strong psychoactive effects and their high lipophilicity. In this context, precisely due to the lack of psychoactive properties, cannabidiol (CBD), the second major component of Cannabis sativa, arises as the phytocannabinoid with the most auspicious therapeutic potential.
Hence, the incorporation of CBD in lipid nanocapsules (LNCs) will contribute to overcome the dosing problems associated with cannabinoids.
Herein, we have prepared LNCs decorated and loaded with CBD for glioma therapy and screened in vitro their critical parameters. On the one hand, we have encapsulated CBD into the oily core of LNCs to test their in vitro efficacy as extended-release carriers against the human glioblastoma cell line U373MG. The in vitro antitumor effect was highly dependent on the size of LNCs due to its pivotal role in the extent of CBD release.
Effectively, a comparison between two differently-sized LNCs (namely, 20-nm and 50-nm sized carriers) showed that the smaller LNCs reduced by 3.0-fold the IC50 value of their 50-nm sized counterparts. On the other hand, to explore the potential of this phytocannabinoid to target any of the cannabinoid receptors overexpressed in glioma cells, we decorated the LNCs with CBD. This functionalization strategy enhanced the in vitro glioma targeting by 3.4-fold in comparison with their equally-sized undecorated counterparts.
Lastly, the combination of CBD-loading with CBD-functionalization further reduced the IC50 values. Hence, the potential of these two strategies of CBD incorporation into LNCs deserves subsequent in vivo evaluation.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30472144
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0939641118311366?via%3Dihub
Patients' and clinicians' perspectives of co-use of cannabis and opioids for chronic non-cancer pain management in primary care.
“The prevalence of opioid-associated morbidity and mortality underscores the need for research on non-opioid treatments for chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP). Pain is the most common medical condition for which patients request medical cannabis. Limited research indicates that patients are interested in cannabis as a potential addition to or replacement for opioid medication. This analysis reports on CNCP patient and clinician perceptions about the co-use of cannabis and opioids for CNCP management.
METHODS:
We interviewed 23 clinicians and 46 CNCP patients, using semi-structured interview guides, from six safety-net clinics across the San Francisco Bay Area, and 5 key stakeholders involved in CNCP management. We used a modified grounded theory approach to code and analyze transcripts.RESULTS:
CNCP patients described potential benefits of co-use of cannabis and opioids for pain management and concerns about dosing and addictive potential. Patients reported seeking cannabis when unable to obtain prescription opioids. Clinicians stated that their patients reported cannabis being helpful in managing pain symptoms. Clinicians expressed concerns about the potential exacerbation of mental health issues resulting from cannabis use.CONCLUSION:
Clinicians are hampered by a lack of clinically relevant information about cannabis use, efficacy and side-effects. Currently no guidelines exist for clinicians to address opioid and cannabis co-use, or to discuss the risk and benefits of cannabis for CNCP management, including side effects. Cannabis and opioid co-use was commonly reported by patients in our sample, yet rarely addressed during clinical CNCP care. Further research is needed on the risks and benefits of cannabis and opioid co-use.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30472467 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955395918302287]]>Impact of recreational and medicinal marijuana on surgical patients: A review.
“As medicinal and recreational marijuana use broadens across the United States, knowledge of its effects on the body will become increasingly important to all health care providers, including surgeons.
DATA SOURCES:
We performed a literature review of Pubmed for articles discussing the basic science related to cannabinoids, as well as articles regarding cannabinoid medications, and cannabis use in surgical patients.CONCLUSIONS:
The primary components in the cannabis plant, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), have been made available in numerous forms and formulations to treat multiple medical conditions, and recreational access to marijuana is increasing. Of particular importance to the surgeon may be their effects on prolonging intestinal motility, decreasing inflammation, increasing hunger, mitigating pain, and reducing nausea and vomiting. Perioperative use of medicinal or recreational marijuana will become increasingly prevalent, and the surgeon should be aware of the positive and negative effects of these cannabinoids.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30471810 https://www.americanjournalofsurgery.com/article/S0002-9610(18)31123-1/fulltext]]>Cannabinoids for Treating Cardiovascular Disorders: Putting Together a Complex Puzzle.
“Cannabinoids have been increasingly gaining attention for their therapeutic potential in treating various cardiovascular disorders. These disorders include myocardial infarction, hypertension, atherosclerosis, arrhythmias, and metabolic disorders.
The aim of this review is to cover the main actions of cannabinoids on the cardiovascular system by examining the most recent advances in this field and major literature reviews.
It is well recognized that the actions of cannabinoids are mediated by either cannabinoid 1 or cannabinoid 2 receptors (CB2Rs). Endocannabinoids produce a triphasic response on blood pressure, while synthetic cannabinoids show a tissue-specific and species-specific response.
Blocking cannabinoid 1 receptors have been shown to be effective against cardiometabolic disorders, although this should be done peripherally. Blocking CB2Rs may be a useful way to treat atherosclerosis by affecting immune cells. The activation of CB2Rs was reported to be useful in animal studies of myocardial infarction and cardiac arrhythmia.
Although cannabinoids show promising effects in animal models, this does not always translate into human studies, and therefore, extensive clinical studies are needed to truly establish their utility in treating cardiovascular disease.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30464888
“Cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) has been reported to produce a cardio-protective effect in cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction. Here in this study, we investigated the role of CB2 in diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) and its underlying mechanisms.
In conclusion, we initially demonstrated that activating CB2 produced a cardio-protective effect in DCM as well as cardiomyocytes under HG challenge through inducing the AMPK-mTOR-p70S6K signaling-mediated autophagy.”
“Naturally occurring small molecule compounds have long been in the spotlight of pancreatic cancer research as potential therapeutics to prevent cancer progression and sensitize chemoresistant tumors. The hope is that terminal pancreatic cancer patients receiving aggressive chemotherapy can benefit from an increase in treatment efficacy without adding further toxicity by way of utilizing natural compounds. While preclinical studies on a number of natural compounds, such as resveratrol, curcumin, rapalogs and 
“New neurons are continuously produced by neural stem cells (NSCs) within the adult hippocampus. Numerous diseases, including major depressive disorder and HIV-1 associated neurocognitive disorder, are associated with decreased rates of adult neurogenesis. A hallmark of these conditions is a chronic release of neuroinflammatory mediators by activated resident glia.
Recent studies have shown a neuroprotective role on NSCs of cannabinoid receptor activation. Yet, little is known about the effects of GPR55, a candidate cannabinoid receptor, activation on reductions of neurogenesis in response to inflammatory insult.
In the present study, we examined NSCs exposed to IL-1β in vitro to assess inflammation-caused effects on NSC differentiation and the ability of GPR55 agonists to attenuate NSC injury.
Taken together, these results suggest a neuroprotective role of GPR55 activation on NSCs in vitro and in vivo and that GPR55 provides a novel therapeutic target against negative regulation of hippocampal neurogenesis by inflammatory insult.”