“Recent findings highlight the emerging role of the endocannabinoid system in the control of symptoms and disease progression in multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is a chronic, immune-mediated, demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system with no cure so far. It is widely reported in the literature that cannabinoids might be used to control MS symptoms and that they also might exert neuroprotective effects and slow down disease progression. This review aims to give an overview of the principal cannabinoids(synthetic and endogenous) used for the symptomatic amelioration of MS and their beneficial outcomes, providing new potentially possible perspectives for the treatment of this disease.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30111755 http://www.mdpi.com/2305-6320/5/3/91]]>
Monthly Archives: August 2018
Reprint of: Efficacy, tolerability, and safety of non-pharmacological therapies for chronic pain: An umbrella review on various CAM approaches.
“Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies may be used as a non-pharmacological approach to chronic pain management. Inhaled cannabis, graded motor imagery, and Compound Kushen injection (a form of Chinese medicine) were found the most efficient and tolerable for chronic pain relief.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30107944 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027858461830602X?via%3Dihub]]>
Cannabis shenanigans: advocating for the restoration of an effective treatment of pain following spinal cord injury.
“Cannabis is an effective treatment for pain following spinal cord injury that should be available to patients and researchers.
The major argument against the rescheduling of cannabis is that the published research is not convincing. This argument is disingenuous at best, given that the evidence has been presented and rejected at many points during the political dialog. Moreover, the original decision to criminalize cannabis did not utilize scientific or medical data.
There is tension between the needs of a society to protect the vulnerable by restricting the rights of others to live well and with less pain. It is clear that this 70-year war on cannabis has had little effect in controlling the supply of cannabis.
Prohibition can never succeed; “it is a tyranny from which every independent mind revolts.”
People living with chronic pain should not have to risk addiction, social stigma, restrictions on employment and even criminal prosecution in order to deal with their pain.
It is time to end the shenanigans and have an open, transparent discussion of the true benefits of this much-beleaguered medicine.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30109133
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41394-018-0096-1
The enigma of cannabis use in spinal cord injury.
“Cannabis use in medicine continues to confound practitioners.
There is confusing interpretation of the efficacy and adverse event data, highlighting the complexity of this unique plant.
Cannabis may have a neuroprotective role in SCI.”
“Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive brain tumor, which causes the highest number of deaths worldwide. It is a highly vascularized tumor, infiltrative, and its tumorigenic capacity is exacerbated. All these hallmarks are therapeutic targets in GBM treatment, including surgical removal followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Current therapies have not been sufficient for the effective patient’s management, so the classic therapies have had to expand and incorporate new alternative treatments, including natural compounds.
This review summarizes natural products and their physiological effects in in vitro and in vivo models of GBM, specifically by modulating signaling pathways involved in angiogenesis, cell migration/invasion, cell viability, apoptosis, and chemoresistance. The most important aspects of natural products and their derivatives were described in relation to its antitumoral effects.
As a final result, it can be obtained that within the compounds with more evidence that supports or suggests its clinical use are the 
“The scientific study of the role of 
“Approximately 0.5% of the population is diagnosed with some form of schizophrenia, under the prevailing view that the pathology is best treated using pharmaceutical medications that act on monoamine receptors.
We briefly review evidence on the impact of environmental forces, particularly the effect of autoimmune activity, in the expression of schizophrenic profiles and the role of Cannabis therapy for regulating immunological functioning.
A review of the literature shows that phytocannabinoid consumption may be a safe and effective treatment option for schizophrenia as a primary or adjunctive therapy.
Conclusions: Emerging research suggests that Cannabis can be used as a treatment for schizophrenia within a broader etiological perspective that focuses on environmental, autoimmune, and neuroinflammatory causes of the disorder, offering a fresh start and newfound hope for those suffering from this debilitating and poorly understood disease.”
“Under normal conditions, there is a paucity of neutrophils within the intestinal mucosa; however, these innate immune cells rapidly infiltrate the mucosa in response to infection and are critical for pathogen control. Unfortunately, these cells can cause extensive damage to the intestine if the initial inflammatory influx is not resolved. Factors that promote resolution of inflammation are of great interest, as they have therapeutic potential for limiting uncontrolled inflammatory damage. In this issue of the JCI, Szabady et al. demonstrate that the multidrug resistance transporter P-glycoprotein (P-gp) secretes endocannabinoids into the intestinal lumen that counteract the proinflammatory actions of the eicosanoid hepoxilin A3, which is secreted into the lumen by the efflux pump MRP2 and serves as a potent neutrophil chemoattractant. Moreover, the antiinflammatory actions of P-gp-secreted endocannabinoids were mediated by peripheral cannabinoid receptor CB2 on neutrophils. Together, the results of this study identify an important mechanism by which endogenous endocannabinoids facilitate the resolution of inflammation; this mechanism has potential to be therapeutically exploited.”
“The objective of this study was to characterize the changes in adverse events, seizure severity, and frequency in response to a pharmaceutical formulation of highly purified