“The endocannabinoid (EC) system possesses anti-inflammatory properties and seems to be altered in trauma-exposed individuals.
In an intergenerational approach, this study investigated the link between childhood maltreatment (CM) experiences and alterations in the EC system.
Findings indicate altered EC levels during the last trimester of pregnancy in mothers with CM and their developing fetus, highlighting potential intergenerational effects from one generation to the other.”
“Long term exposure to stress has been demonstrated to cause neuroinflammation through a sustained overproduction of free radicals, including nitric oxide, via an increased inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) activity.
Similar to nitric oxide, endocannabinoids are synthesised on demand, with preclinical observations suggesting that cannabinoid receptor agonists and endocannabinoid enhancers inhibit nitrergic activity.
RESULTS:
The results demonstrate that pre-treatment with PF-3845 rapidly ameliorates plasma corticosterone release at 60 minutes of stress. An increase in endocannabinoid signalling also induces an overall attenuation in iNOS, tumor necrosis factor-alpha convertase, interleukin-6, cyclooxygenase-2, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma mRNA, and the transactivation potential of NF-κB in the hippocampus.
These results suggest that enhanced endocannabinoid levels in the dorsal hippocampus have an overall anti-nitrosative and anti-inflammatory effect following acute stress exposure.”
“Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common disease of joints, which are complex organs where cartilage, bone and synovium cooperate to allow the range of movements. During the disease progression, the function of all three main components is jeopardized. Nevertheless, the involvement of each tissue in OA development is still not established and is the topic of the present review. The available OA therapies are symptomatic, largely targeting pain management rather than disease progression. The strong need to develop a treatment for cartilage degeneration, bone deformation and synovial inflammation has led to research on the involvement of the endocannabinoid system in the development of OA. The current review discusses the research on this topic to date and notes the advantages of exploiting endocannabinoid system modulation for cartilage, bone and synovium homeostasis, which could prevent the further progression of OA.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29574720
https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bph.14204
“We provide experimental evidence to show that activation of the cannabinoid system enhances the survival, migration and chondrogenic differentiation of MSCs, which are three major tenets behind the success of a cell-based tissue-engineered cartilage repair strategy. These findings highlight the potential for cannabinoids to provide a dual function by acting as anti-inflammatory agents as well as regulators of MSC biology in order to enhance tissue engineering strategies aimed at cartilage repair.”
“Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by restricted, stereotyped behaviors and impairments in social communication.
Although the underlying biological mechanisms of ASD remain poorly understood, recent preclinical research has implicated the endogenous cannabinoid (or endocannabinoid), anandamide, as a significant neuromodulator in rodent models of ASD. Despite this promising preclinical evidence, no clinical studies to date have tested whether endocannabinoids are dysregulated in individuals with ASD.
Here, we addressed this critical gap in knowledge by optimizing liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry methodology to quantitatively analyze anandamide concentrations in banked blood samples collected from a cohort of children with and without ASD (N = 112).
Anandamide concentrations significantly differentiated ASD cases (N = 59) from controls (N = 53), such that children with lower anandamide concentrations were more likely to have ASD (p = 0.041). In keeping with this notion, anandamide concentrations were also significantly lower in ASD compared to control children (p = 0.034).
These findings are the first empirical human data to translate preclinical rodent findings to confirm a link between plasma anandamide concentrations in children with ASD. Although preliminary, these data suggest that impaired anandamide signaling may be involved in the pathophysiology of ASD.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29564080
https://molecularautism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13229-018-0203-y
“Motor symptoms in Huntington’s disease (HD) are heterogeneous with dystonia being described as a symptom with a very high prevalence not only in juvenile cases.
Treatment options for dystonia are limited. Cannabinoids have been described as a potential treatment for patients with dystonia of a different origin. Here, we present early onset HD patients with a marked improvement of motor symptoms mainly due to alleviation of dystonia due to treatment with cannabinoids. In addition we review the current literature concerning the use of cannabinoids in HD.
Improvement of motor symptoms, mainly dystonia, led to several relevant improvements from a global clinical perspective such as improvement of care, gait and fine motor skills and weight gain. Moreover, we observed changes in behavior with less irritability and apathy, as well as less hypersalivation in some cases.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29562549
https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-huntingtons-disease/jhd170283
“The use of cannabis for medical purposes has been recently legalised in many countries including the Czech Republic. As a result, there is increased interest on the part of physicians and patients in many aspects of its application. This mini review briefly covers the main active substances of the cannabis plant and mechanisms of action. It focuses on two conditions, cancer pain and spasticity in multiple sclerosis, where its effects are well-documented. A comprehensive overview of a few cannabis-based products and the basic pharmacokinetics of marijuana’s constituents follows. The review concludes with an outline for preparing cannabis (dried inflorescence) containing drug dosage forms that can be produced in a hospital pharmacy.”
“Gastroschisis (GS) is an abdominal wall defect that results in histological and morphological changes leading to intestinal motility perturbation and impaired absorption of nutrients.
Due to its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective effects, cannabidiol(CBD) has been used as a therapeutic agent in many diseases.
Our aim was to test the effect of maternal CBD in the intestine of an experimental model of GS.
Maternal use of CBD had a beneficial effect on the intestinal loops of GS with decreased nitrite/nitrate and iNOS expression.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29561958
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-879X2018000500607&lng=en&tlng=en
There is abundant preclinical literature demonstrating the anti-inflammatory effects of cannabinoid drugs in inflammation of the gut.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29562280
https://academic.oup.com/ibdjournal/article-abstract/24/4/680/4944355?redirectedFrom=fulltext
“Synthesis of the current evidence does not support the hypothesis that US medical marijuana laws (MMLs) until 2014 have led to increases in adolescent marijuana use prevalence. None of the 11 studies found significant estimates of pre–post MML changes compared with contemporaneous changes in non‐MML states for marijuana use prevalence among adolescents. In summary, current evidence does not support the hypothesis that MML passage is associated with increased marijuana use prevalence among adolescents in states that have passed such laws up until 2014.” https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/add.14136
“Recent data suggest that the endocannabinoid system (ECS) may be involved in the glial response in different types of brain injury. Both acute and chronic insults seem to trigger a shift in the pattern of expression of some elements of this system from neuronal to glial. Specifically, data obtained in human brain tissue sections from Alzheimer’s disease patients showed that the expression of cannabinoid receptors of the CB(2) type is induced in activated microglial cells while fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) expression is increased in reactive astrocytes. The present study was designed to determine the time-course of the shift from neuronal to glial induction in the expression of these proteins in Down‘s syndrome, sometimes referred to as a human model of Alzheimer-like beta-amyloid (Abeta) deposition. Here we present immunohistochemical evidence that both CB(2) receptors and FAAH enzyme are induced in Abeta plaque-associated microglia and astroglia, respectively, in Down‘s syndrome. These results suggest that the induction of these elements of the ECS contributes to, or is a result of, amyloid deposition and subsequent plaque formation. In addition, they confirm a striking differential pattern of distribution of FAAH and CB(2) receptors.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18068305
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306452207012924