“Extensive basic science research has identified the potential therapeutic benefits of active compounds extracted from the Cannabis sativa L. plant (the cannabinoids). It is recognized that a significant proportion of patients suffering with the debilitating symptoms of pain and spasticity in multiple sclerosis or other conditions smoke cannabis despite the legal implications and stigma associated with this controlled substance. GW Pharmaceuticals have developed Sativex (GW- 1000-02), a combined cannabinoid medicine that delivers and maintains therapeutic levels of two principal cannabinoids, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), via an oromucosal pump spray, that aims to minimize psychotropic side effects.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16969427 “Sativex has proved to be well tolerated and successfully self-administered and self-titrated in both healthy volunteers and patient cohorts. Clinical assessment of this combined cannabinoid medicine has demonstrated efficacy in patients with intractable pain (chronic neuropathic pain, pain due to brachial plexus nerve injury, allodynic peripheral neuropathic pain and advanced cancer pain), rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis (bladder problems, spasticity and central pain), with no significant intoxication-like symptoms, tolerance or withdrawal syndrome.” https://journals.prous.com/journals/servlet/xmlxsl/pk_journals.xml_summaryn_pr?p_JournalId=4&p_RefId=1021517 “Sativex(®) (nabiximols, USAN name) oromucosal spray contains the two main active constituents of Cannabis sativa, tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol in a 1:1 molecular ratio, and acts as an endocannabinoid system modulator.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21449855
Category Archives: Pain
Cannabinoid CB2 receptor ligand profiling reveals biased signalling and off-target activity
“The cannabinoid CB2 receptor (CB2R) represents a promising therapeutic target for various forms of tissue injury and inflammatory diseases. There is a great interest in the development of selective type-2 cannabinoid receptor (CB2R) agonists as potential drug candidates for various pathophysiological conditions, which include chronic and inflammatory pain, pruritus, diabetic neuropathy and nephropathy, liver cirrhosis, and protective effects after ischaemic-reperfusion injury.” https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13958
“Pain relief without the high. Researchers at Leiden University led by Mario van der Stelt (Leiden Institute for Chemistry) have set ‘gold standards’ for developing new painkillers based on the medicinal effects of cannabis.” https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170104103916.htm
Anti-inflammatory effects of the cannabidiol derivative dimethylheptyl-cannabidiol – studies in BV-2 microglia and encephalitogenic T cells
“Preparations derived from Cannabis sativa (marijuana and hashish) have become widespread since ancient times, both as therapeutic agents and in recreational smoking. Among the more than 60 phytocannabinoids identified in Cannabis extracts, the two most abundant are Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the major psychotropic constituent, and cannabidiol (CBD), the major non-psychoactive component. Cannabinoids were shown to exert a wide range of therapeutic effects, and many of the cannabinoids, especially CBD, were shown to possess potent anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activities. In addition, it was shown that several cannabinoids have pro-apoptotic, neuroprotective, and antitumor properties Dimethylheptyl-cannabidiol (DMH-CBD), a non-psychoactive, synthetic derivative of the phytocannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD), has been reported to be anti-inflammatory in RAW macrophages. Here, we evaluated the effects of DMH-CBD at the transcriptional level in BV-2 microglial cells as well as on the proliferation of encephalitogenic T cells. The results show that DMH-CBD has similar anti-inflammatory properties to those of CBD. DMH-CBD downregulates the expression of inflammatory cytokines and protects the microglial cells by inducing an adaptive cellular response against inflammatory stimuli and oxidative injury. In addition, DMH-CBD decreases the proliferation of pathogenic activated TMOG cells. Several CBD derivatives were also shown to have anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative properties. The results show that DMH-CBD induces similar anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, and stress response effects to those previously observed for CBD.” https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jbcpp.2016.27.issue-3/jbcpp-2015-0071/jbcpp-2015-0071.xml]]>
Substitution of medical cannabis for pharmaceutical agents for pain, anxiety, and sleep.
“A prior epidemiological study identified a reduction in opioid overdose deaths in US states that legalized medical cannabis (MC). One theory to explain this phenomenon is a potential substitution effect of MC for opioids. This study evaluated whether this substitution effect of MC for opioids also applies to other psychoactive medications.
New England dispensary members ( n = 1,513) completed an online survey about their medical history and MC experiences. Among respondents that regularly used opioids, over three-quarters (76.7%) indicated that they reduced their use since they started MC. This was significantly ( p < 0.0001) greater than the patients that reduced their use of antidepressants (37.6%) or alcohol (42.0%). Approximately two-thirds of patients decreased their use of anti-anxiety (71.8%), migraine (66.7%), and sleep (65.2%) medications following MC which significantly ( p < 0.0001) exceeded the reduction in antidepressants or alcohol use. The patient’s spouse, family, and other friends were more likely to know about their MC use than was their primary care provider.
In conclusion, a majority of patients reported using less opioids as well as fewer medications to treat anxiety, migraines, and sleep after initiating MC. A smaller portion used less antidepressants or alcohol. Additional research is needed to corroborate these self-reported, retrospective, cross-sectional findings using other data sources.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28372506
“Treatment of inflammatory pain with opioids is accompanied by unpleasant and, at times, life-threatening side effects.
Cannabis produces antinociception as well as psychotropic effects. It was hypothesized that peripheral cannabinoid receptors outside the central nervous system could be selectively activated for relief of pain.
This study was undertaken to measure the antinociceptive effect of type 1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1r) agonist arachidonylcyclopropylamide (ACPA) in a rat model of inflammatory pain after intrawound administration and the effects were compared with lignocaine.
Lignocaine attenuated evoked pain behaviour whereas ACPA decreased guarding score. This difference was likely due to blockade of sodium ion channels and the activation of peripheral CB1r, respectively. Central side effects were absent after ACPA treatment. Further studies need to be done to assess the effect of ACPA treatment in clinical conditions.”
“Fatty-acid-binding proteins (FABPs) are intracellular carriers for endocannabinoids, N-acylethanolamines, and related lipids. Previous work indicates that systemically administered FABP5 inhibitors produce analgesia in models of inflammatory pain. It is currently not known whether FABP inhibitors exert their effects through peripheral or central mechanisms. Here, we examined FABP5 distribution in dorsal root ganglia and spinal cord and examined the analgesic effects of peripherally and centrally administered FABP5 inhibitors.
Results: Immunofluorescence revealed robust expression of FABP5 in lumbar dorsal root ganglia. FABP5 was distributed in peptidergic calcitonin gene-related peptide-expressing dorsal root ganglia and non-peptidergic isolectin B4-expressing dorsal root ganglia. In addition, the majority of dorsal root ganglia expressing FABP5 also expressed transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) and peripherin, a marker of nociceptive fibers. Intraplantar administration of FABP5 inhibitors reduced thermal and mechanical hyperalgesia in the complete Freund’s adjuvant model of chronic inflammatory pain. In contrast to its robust expression in dorsal root ganglia, FABP5 was sparsely distributed in the lumbar spinal cord and intrathecal administration of FABP inhibitor did not confer analgesic effects. Administration of FABP inhibitor via the intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) route reduced thermal hyperalgesia. Antagonists of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha blocked the analgesic effects of peripherally and i.c.v. administered FABP inhibitor while antagonism of 
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