“Use of illicit drugs, particularly cannabis, by young people is widespread and is associated with several types of psychological and social harm. These relations might not be causal. Causal relations would suggest that recreational drug use is a substantial public health problem…
All these associations seemed to be explicable in terms of non-causal mechanisms.
“Cannabinoids appear to be of therapeutic value as antiemetics, antispasmodics, analgesics and appetite stimulants and may have potential uses in epilepsy, glaucoma and asthma.
This paper reviews the clinical trials which have been carried out with cannabinoids including Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and synthetic cannabinoids such as nabilone and levonantradol, and discusses the advantages and adverse effects of cannabinoids in clinical use.
The place of cannabinoids in modern medicine remains to be properly evaluated, but present evidence suggests that they could be valuable, particularly as adjuvants, for symptom control in a range of conditions for which standard drugs are not fully satisfactory.”
“Type 1 cannabinoid receptors (CB1R) modulate energy balance; thus, their premature activation may result in altered physiology of tissues involved in such a function.
Activation of CB1R mainly occurs after binding to the endocannabinoid Anandamide (AEA).
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of AEA treatment during lactation on epididymal and body fat content, in addition to CB1R protein level at weaning.
This in vivo study shows for the first time that a progressive increase in body fat accumulation can be programmed in early stages of life by oral treatment with the endocannabinoid AEA, a fact associated with an increased amount of epididymal fat pads and a higher expression of CB1R in this tissue.”
“This study was performed to investigate the effects of CBR agonists on skin inflammation, using acute and chronic inflammation animal models.
All of the results suggest that topical application of CB1R-specific agonist can be beneficial for alleviating the inflammatory symptoms in chronic skin diseases, including atopic dermatitis.”
“Skeletal muscle injuries repair typically is an overlapping event between inflammation and tissue repair.
Our previous study has demonstrated that activation of cannabinoid receptor type 2 (CB2R) alleviates fibrosis in the repair of rat skeletal muscle contusion. Meanwhile, accumulated data show that CB2R stimulation exerts anti-inflammatory property in sepsis and cystitis…
In this study, we used selective agonist or antagonist of CB2R to observe the role of CB2R on inflammation and fibrogenesis during the repair of contused skeletal muscles in rats…
Our study demonstrated that CB2R orchestrates fibrogenesis through regulation of inflammatory response during the repair of skeletal muscle contusion.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26097533
“Nine oxygenated cannabinoids were isolated from a high potency Cannabis sativa L. variety. Structure elucidation was achieved using spectroscopic techniques, including 1D and 2D NMR, HRMS and GC-MS.
These minor compounds include four hexahydrocannabinols, four tetrahydrocannabinols, and one hydroxylated cannabinol, namely 9α-hydroxyhexahydrocannabinol, 7-oxo-9α-hydroxyhexa-hydrocannabinol, 10α-hydroxyhexahydrocannabinol, 10aR-hydroxyhexahydrocannabinol, Δ9-THC aldehyde A, 8-oxo-Δ9-THC, 10aα-hydroxy-10-oxo-Δ8-THC, 9α-hydroxy-10-oxo-Δ6a,10a-THC, and 1’S-hydroxycannabinol, respectively.
The latter compound showed moderate anti-MRSa (IC50 10.0μg/mL), moderate antileishmanial (IC50 14.0μg/mL) and mild antimalarial activity against Plasmodium falciparum (D6 clone) and P. falciparum (W2 clone) with IC50values of 3.4 and 2.3μg/mL, respectively.”
“Given current limitations in developing an inhalant alternative for delivering cannabis medication, smoked marijuana remains the most readily accessible form of cannabis among medicinal users…
Cannabis actually served as an asthma treatment in the 1800s and, perhaps, in ancient times…
Informed health care professionals may consider making recommendations to their medicinal cannabis patients for vapourization of the plant, particularly for those who want the rapid relief that oral administration fails to provide.
It is not our intention to encourage inappropriate use of the plant, but to increase safety for those who choose to use it.
Vapourization of cannabis is likely less harmful than smoking.
Preliminary findings do support the idea that vapourization is an improvement over smoking.”
“The ability of microglia to acquire diverse states of activation, or phenotypes, reflects different features that are determinant for their contribution to homeostasis in the adult CNS, and their activity in neuroinflammation, repair or immunomodulation.
Despite the widely reported immunomodulatory effects of cannabinoids in both the peripheral immune system and the CNS, less is known about how the endocannabinoid signaling system (eCBSS) influence the microglial phenotype.
The general aim of the present study was to investigate the role of endocannabinoids in microglia polarization by using microglia cell cultures.
We show that alternative microglia (M2a) and acquired deactivated microglia (M2c) exhibit changes in the eCB machinery that favor the selective synthesis of 2-AG and AEA, respectively.
Once released, these eCBs might be able to act through CB1 and/or CB2 receptors in order to influence the acquisition of an M2 phenotype.
We present three lines of evidence that the eCBSS is critical for the acquisition of the M2 phenotype: (i) M2 polarization occurs on exposure to the two main endocannabinoids 2-AG and AEA in microglia cultures; (ii)cannabinoid receptor antagonists block M2 polarization; and, (iii) M2 polarization is dampened in microglia from CB2 receptor knockout mice.
Taken together, these results indicate the interest of eCBSS for the regulation of microglial activation in normal and pathological conditions.”
“The use of cannabis for medical purposes, evident throughout history, has become a topic of increasing interest. Yet on the present medical evidence, cannabis-based treatments will only be appropriate for a small number of people in specific circumstances. Experience with cannabis as a recreational drug, and with use of psychoactive drugs that are prescribed and abused, should inform harm reduction in the context of medical cannabis.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26059881
“Cannabidiol (CBD) has anti-inflammatory effects.
We explored its therapeutic effects on cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury with an experimental imaging platform…
Compared to controls, CBD treatment improved systolic wall thickening, significantly increased blood flow in the AAR, significantly decreased microvascular obstruction, increased the PDR by 1.7-fold, lowered the AMI-core/AAR ratio, and increased the MSI.
These improvements were associated with reductions in serum cTnI, cardiac leukocyte infiltration, and myocellular apoptosis.
Thus, CBD therapy reduced AMI size and facilitated restoration of LV function.
We demonstrated that this experimental platform has potential theragnostic utility.”