The Endocannabinoid System and Oligodendrocytes in Health and Disease.

Posted on November 13, 2018 by David

Image result for frontiers in neuroscience “Cannabinoid-based interventions are being explored for central nervous system (CNS) pathologies such as neurodegeneration, demyelination, epilepsy, stroke, and trauma. As these disease states involve dysregulation of myelin integrity and/or remyelination, it is important to consider effects of the endocannabinoid system on oligodendrocytes and their precursors. In this review, we examine research reports on the effects of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) components on oligodendrocytes and their precursors, with a focus on therapeutic implications. Cannabinoid ligands and modulators of the endocannabinoid system promote cell signaling in oligodendrocyte precursor survival, proliferation, migration and differentiation, and mature oligodendrocyte survival and myelination. Agonist stimulation of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) at both CB₁ and CB₂ receptors counter apoptotic processes via Akt/PI3K, and promote proliferation via Akt/mTOR and ERK pathways. CB₁ receptors in radial glia promote proliferation and conversion to progenitors fated to become oligodendroglia, whereas CB₂ receptors promote OPC migration in neonatal development. OPCs produce 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), stimulating cannabinoid receptor-mediated ERK pathways responsible for differentiation to arborized, myelin basic protein (MBP)-producing oligodendrocytes. In cell culture models of excitotoxicity, increased reactive oxygen species, and depolarization-dependent calcium influx, CB₁ agonists improved viability of oligodendrocytes. In transient and permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion models of anoxic stroke, WIN55212-2 increased OPC proliferation and maturation to oligodendroglia, thereby reducing cerebral tissue damage. In several models of rodent encephalomyelitis, chronic treatment with cannabinoid agonists ameliorated the damage by promoting OPC survival and oligodendrocyte function. Pharmacotherapeutic strategies based upon ECS and oligodendrocyte production and survival should be considered.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30416422

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2018.00733/full

Cannabis, cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system – is there therapeutic potential for inflammatory bowel disease?

Posted on November 13, 2018 by David

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“Cannabis sativa and its extracts have been used for centuries both medicinally and recreationally. There is accumulating evidence that exogenous cannabis and related cannabinoids improve symptoms associated with inflammatory bowel disease such as pain, loss of appetite, and diarrhoea. In vivo, exocannabinoids have been demonstrated to improve colitis, mainly in chemical models. Exocannabinoids signal through the endocannabinoid system, an increasingly understood network of endogenous lipid ligands and their receptors, together with a number of synthetic and degradative enzymes and the resulting products. Modulating the endocannabinoid system using pharmacological receptor agonists, genetic knockout models, or inhibition of degradative enzymes have largely shown improvements in colitis in vivo. Despite these promising experimental results, this has not translated into meaningful benefits for human IBD in the few clinical trials which have been conducted to date. The largest study to date being limited by poor medication tolerance due to the Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol component. This review article synthesises the current literature surrounding the modulation of the endocannabinoid system and administration of exocannabinoids in experimental and human IBD. Findings of clinical surveys and studies of cannabis use in IBD are summarised. Discrepancies in the literature are highlighted together with identifying novel areas of interest.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30418525

https://academic.oup.com/ecco-jcc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjy185/5173479

Cannabis Therapeutics and the Future of Neurology.

Posted on November 9, 2018 by David

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“Neurological therapeutics have been hampered by its inability to advance beyond symptomatic treatment of neurodegenerative disorders into the realm of actual palliation, arrest or reversal of the attendant pathological processes.

While cannabis-based medicines have demonstrated safety, efficacy and consistency sufficient for regulatory approval in spasticity in multiple sclerosis (MS), and in Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut Syndromes (LGS), many therapeutic challenges remain.

This review will examine the intriguing promise that recent discoveries regarding cannabis-based medicines offer to neurological therapeutics by incorporating the neutral phytocannabinoids tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD), their acidic precursors, tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA) and cannabidiolic acid (CBDA), and cannabis terpenoids in the putative treatment of five syndromes, currently labeled recalcitrant to therapeutic success, and wherein improved pharmacological intervention is required: intractable epilepsy, brain tumors, Parkinson disease (PD), Alzheimer disease (AD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI)/chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Current basic science and clinical investigations support the safety and efficacy of such interventions in treatment of these currently intractable conditions, that in some cases share pathological processes, and the plausibility of interventions that harness endocannabinoid mechanisms, whether mediated via direct activity on CB₁ and CB₂ (tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, caryophyllene), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARγ; THCA), 5-HT_1A (CBD, CBDA) or even nutritional approaches utilizing prebiotics and probiotics.

The inherent polypharmaceutical properties of cannabis botanicals offer distinct advantages over the current single-target pharmaceutical model and portend to revolutionize neurological treatment into a new reality of effective interventional and even preventative treatment.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30405366

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnint.2018.00051/full

Synthetic cannabinoids nano-micelles for the management of triple negative breast cancer.

Posted on October 28, 2018 by David

Journal of Controlled Release

“Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly heterogeneous disease with poor prognosis and inadequate therapeutic outcome. This contribution reports the use of a cannabinoid derivative, WIN55,212-2 (WIN) on the growth of TNBC in a 4T1 syngeneic mouse model.

To reduce the well-known psychoactive side effects of cannabinoids, we prepared a nanomicellar formulation of WIN (SMA-WIN). In vivo biodistribution, in silico ADME predictions, anticancer activity, and psychoactive effect of WIN and SMA-WIN studies suggest that SMA-WIN formulation can reduce to greater extent tumor growth with milder psychoactive side effects when compared to free drug.

Finally, the effects of WIN and SMA-WIN in combination with doxorubicin (Doxo), an established chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of TNBC, were investigated in vitro and in vivo. SMA-WIN in combination with Doxo showed therapeutic efficacy and was able to reduce the tumor volume of TNBC murine model drastically. Moreover, SMA-WIN, while favoring drug tumor accumulation, minimized the adverse psychoactive effects that have impeded the use of this agent in the clinic.

To our knowledge, this is the first report for the assessment of cannabinoid nanoparticles in vivo for the treatment of TNBC and its enhanced anticancer effect at low doses with Doxo. These findings suggest a new therapeutic strategy in the management of TNBC.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30367922

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168365918306114?via%3Dihub

What do Cochrane systematic reviews say about the use of cannabinoids in clinical practice?

Posted on October 27, 2018 by David

SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

“The therapeutic effects of cannabinoid compounds have been the center of many investigations.

This study provides a synthesis on all Cochrane systematic reviews (SRs) that assessed the use of cannabinoids as a therapeutic approach.

CONCLUSIONS:

This review identified eight Cochrane systematic reviews that provided evidence of unknown to moderate quality regarding the use of cannabinoids as a therapeutic intervention. Further studies are still imperative for solid conclusions to be reached regarding practical recommendations.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30365598

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-31802018005016102&lng=en&tlng=en

Adolescent THC exposure does not sensitize conditioned place preferences to subthreshold d-amphetamine in male and female rats.

Posted on October 25, 2018 by David

Click to expand “The acute effects of marijuana consumption on brain physiology and behaviour are well documented, but the long-term effects of its chronic use are less well known. Chronic marijuana use during adolescence is of increased interest, given that the majority of individuals first use marijuana during this developmental stage , and adolescent marijuana use is thought to increase the susceptibility to abusing other drugs when exposed later in life. It is possible that marijuana use during critical periods in adolescence could lead to increased sensitivity to other drugs of abuse later on. To test this, we chronically administered ∆ ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to male and female Long-Evans (LER) and Wistar (WR) rats directly after puberty onset. Rats matured to postnatal day 90 before being exposed to a conditioned place preference task (CPP). A subthreshold dose of d-amphetamine, found not to induce place preference in drug naïve rats, was used as the unconditioned stimulus. The effect of d-amphetamine on neural activity was inferred by quantifying cfos expression in the nucleus accumbens and dorsal hippocampus following CPP training. Chronic exposure to THC post-puberty had no potentiating effect on a subthreshold dose of d-amphetamine to induce CPP. No differences in cfosexpression were observed. These results show that chronic exposure to THC during puberty did not increase sensitivity to a sub-threshold dose of d-amphetamine in adult LER and WR rats. This supports the concept that THC may not sensitize the response to all drugs of abuse.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29770212.2

https://f1000research.com/articles/7-342/v2

Combined THC and CBD to treat pain in epidermolysis bullosa: a report of three cases.

Posted on October 23, 2018 by David

British Journal of Dermatology banner

“Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a genetic blistering disorder characterized by intense pain related to disease pathology and care-based interventions. Opioid-based therapies underpin pain-care in EB however are unable to provide adequate analgesia in a significant proportion of patients. Cannabinoid-based medicines (CBMs) have been increasingly studied for pain conditions of various etiologies and pose as a novel dimension for pain-care in EB. We present three cases of EB who were prescribed pharmaceutical-grade sublingually administered CBMs comprising tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). All three patients reported improved pain scores, reduced pruritus and reduction in overall analgesic drug intake. ”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30347109

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjd.17341

Joint Effects: A Pilot Investigation of the Impact of Bipolar Disorder and Marijuana Use on Cognitive Function and Mood

Posted on October 21, 2018 by David

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“The current study aimed to determine the impact of marijuana on mood in bipolar patients and to examine whether marijuana confers an additional negative impact on cognitive function.

Findings suggest that for some bipolar patients, marijuana may result in partial alleviation of clinical symptoms. Moreover, this improvement is not at the expense of additional cognitive impairment.

The current study highlights preliminary evidence that patients with BPD who regularly smoked MJ reported at least short-term clinical symptom alleviation following MJ use, indicating potential mood-stabilizing properties of MJ in at least a subset of patients with BPD.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27275781

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0157060

New Methods for the Comprehensive Analysis of Bioactive Compounds in Cannabis sativa L. (hemp).

Posted on October 18, 2018 by David

“Cannabis sativa L. is a dioecious plant belonging to the Cannabaceae family. The main phytochemicals that are found in this plant are represented by cannabinoids, flavones, and terpenes. Some biological activities of cannabinoids are known to be enhanced by the presence of terpenes and flavonoids in the extracts, due to a synergistic action.

In the light of all the above, the present study was aimed at the multi-component analysis of the bioactive compounds present in fibre-type C. sativa (hemp) inflorescences of different varieties by means of innovative HPLC and GC methods. In particular, the profiling of non-psychoactive cannabinoids was carried out by means of HPLC-UV/DAD, ESI-MS, and MS². The content of prenylated flavones in hemp extracts, including cannflavins A and B, was also evaluated by HPLC.

The study on Cannabis volatile compounds was performed by developing a new method based on headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with GC-MS and GC-FID. Cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) and cannabidiol(CBD) were found to be the most abundant cannabinoids in the hemp samples analysed, while β-myrcene and β-caryophyllene were the major terpenes. As regards flavonoids, cannflavin A was observed to be the main compound in almost all the samples.

The methods developed in this work are suitable for the comprehensive chemical analysis of both hemp plant material and related pharmaceutical or nutraceutical products in order to ensure their quality, efficacy, and safety.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30322208

https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/23/10/2639

Atypical Pharmacodynamic Properties and Metabolic Profile of the Abused Synthetic Cannabinoid AB-PINACA: Potential Contribution to Pronounced Adverse Effects Relative to Δ9-THC

Posted on October 18, 2018 by David

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“Recreational use of marijuana is associated with few adverse effects, but abuse of synthetic cannabinoids (SCBs) can result in anxiety, psychosis, chest pain, seizures and death.

To potentially explain higher toxicity associated with SCB use, we hypothesized that AB-PINACA, a common second generation SCB, exhibits atypical pharmacodynamic properties at CB1 cannabinoid receptors (CB1Rs) and/or a distinct metabolic profile when compared to Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ⁹-THC), the principal psychoactive cannabinoid present in marijuana.

Taken collectively, the atypical pharmacodynamic properties of AB-PINACA at CB1Rs relative to Δ⁹-THC (e.g., higher potency/efficacy and greater production of desensitization), coupled with an unusual metabolic profile (e.g., production of metabolically stable active phase I metabolites) may contribute to the pronounced adverse effects observed with abuse of this SCB compared to marijuana.

““K2” or “Spice” is a popular drug of abuse that is heavily marketed to young teens and first-time drug users as “safe” and/or “legal” marijuana”. Most K2 preparations consist of plant materials laced with a mixture of one or more SCB compounds possessing psychoactive properties similar to those produced by Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ⁹-THC), the principal psychoactive compound found in marijuana. However, in contrast to the low incidence of adverse effects reported following use of marijuana, recreational abuse of SCBs can additionally result in anxiety, psychosis, chest pain, seizures and death.

In marked contrast to K2/Spice products, marijuana contains only a single psychoactive compound Δ⁹-THC and a second natural constituent known as cannabidiol, that appears to blunt adverse effects produced by Δ⁹-THC. In fact, the beneficial combination of cannabidiol with Δ⁹-THC led to development of Sativex, a drug currently in clinical trials to treat a variety of indications including spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis.

In addition to Δ⁹-THC and cannabidiol, the cannabis plant contains hundreds of other phytocannabinoids and constituents not present in K2/Spice products that may help mitigate harmful and/or adverse effects ”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30319418

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2018.01084/full

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Category Archives: THC (Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol)