“The purpose of this review was to discuss the currently available pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatment options for parasomnias.
“The purpose of this review was to discuss the currently available pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatment options for parasomnias.
“Movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and dyskinesia are highly debilitating conditions linked to oxidative stress and neurodegeneration. When available, the pharmacological therapies for these disorders are still mainly symptomatic, do not benefit all patients and induce severe side effects. Cannabidiol is a non-psychotomimetic compound from Cannabis sativa that presents antipsychotic, anxiolytic, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective effects. Although the studies that investigate the effects of this compound on movement disorders are surprisingly few, cannabidiol emerges as a promising compound to treat and/or prevent them. Here, we review these clinical and pre-clinical studies and draw attention to the potential of cannabidiol in this field.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29867488
“It is widely accepted that the endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a modulator of neuroinflammation associated with neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Thus, expression of the cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) is induced in plaque-associated microglia and astrocytes in brain tissues from AD patients and in genetic mouse models expressing pathogenic variants of the amyloid precursor protein (APP).
However, the exact mechanism of CB2 signaling in this mouse model remains elusive, because the genetic deletion of CB2 and the pharmacological activation of CB2 both reduced neuroinflammation.
Here, we demonstrate that CB2 deletion also improved cognitive and learning deficits in APP/PS1*CB2-/- mice. This was accompanied by reduced neuronal loss and decreased plaque levels and coincided with increased expression of Aβ degrading enzymes. Interestingly, plaque-associated microglia in APP/PS1*CB2-/- mice showed a less activated morphology, while plaques were smaller and more condensed than in APP/PS1 mice.
Taken together, these results indicate a beneficial effect of CB2-deficiency in APP transgenic mice. CB2 appears to be part of a protective system that may be detrimental when engaged continuously.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29865078
https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad180230
“It has been proposed that medicinal strains of cannabis and therapeutic preparations would be safer with a more balanced concentration ratio of Δ(9) -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to cannabidiol (CBD), as CBD reduces the adverse psychotropic effects of THC. The aim of this study was to investigate whether CBD modulated the functional effects and c-Fos expression induced by THC, using a 1:1 dose ratio that approximates therapeutic strains of cannabis and nabiximols.
These data confirm that CBD modulated the pharmacological actions of THC and provide new information regarding brain regions involved in the interaction between CBD and THC.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26377899 “A number of studies now support the view that cannabidiol (CBD) may reduce the negative psychotropic effects of THC while enhancing its positive therapeutic actions. Our results are consistent with the notion that cannabis plant strains that contain THC and CBD at 1:1 ratios may be preferable to street cannabis for medicinal applications because they maximize therapeutic efficacy while minimizing the adverse effects of THC.” https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bph.13333]]>
“Cannabinoid receptor agonists such as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) enhance the antinociceptive potency of mu opioid receptor agonists such as morphine, indicating that opioid/cannabinoid mixtures might be effective for treating pain. However, such enhancement will be beneficial only if cannabinoids do not also enhance adverse effects of opioids, including those related to abuse.
In rhesus monkeys, cannabinoids fail to enhance and often decrease self-administration of the mu opioid receptor agonist heroin, suggesting that opioid/cannabinoid mixtures do not have greater reinforcing effects (abuse potential) compared with opioids alone. Previous studies on the self-administration of opioid/cannabinoid mixtures used single-response procedures, which do not easily differentiate changes in reinforcing effects from other effects (e.g., rate decreasing).
“Accumulating studies have linked inflammation to tumor progression.
Dietary omega-3 fatty acids including docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) have been shown to suppress tumor growth through their conversion to epoxide metabolites. Alternatively, DHA is converted enzymatically into docosahexaenoylethanolamide (DHEA), an endocannabinoid with anti-proliferative activity.
Recently, we reported a novel class of anti-inflammatory DHEA-epoxides (EDP-EAs) that contain both ethanolamide and epoxide moieties. Herein we evaluate the anti-tumorigenic properties of EDP-EAs in an osteosarcoma model.
First, we show ~80% increase in EDP-EAs in metastatic lungs versus normal mouse lungs. We found significant differences in the apoptotic and anti-migratory potency of the different EDP-EA regioisomers, which are partly mediated through cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1).
Furthermore, we synthesized derivatives of the most pro-apoptotic regioisomer. These derivatives had reduced hydrolytic susceptibility to fatty acid-amide hydrolase and increased CB1 binding.
Collectively, we report a novel class of EDP-EAs that exhibit anti-angiogenic, anti-tumorigenic and anti-migratory properties in osteosarcoma.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29856219
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.8b00243
“At the beginning of the 21st century, the therapeutic management of neurodegenerative disorders remains a major biomedical challenge, particularly given the worldwide aging of the population over the past 50 years that is expected to continue in the forthcoming years.
This review will focus on the promise of cannabinoid based therapies to address this challenge.
Such promise is based on the broad neuroprotective profile of cannabinoids, which may cooperate to combat excitotoxicity, oxidative stress, glia-driven inflammation and protein aggregation.
Such effects may be produced by the activity of cannabinoids through their canonical targets (e.g. cannabinoid receptors, endocannabinoid enzymes) but also, via non-canonical elements and activities in distinct cell types critical for cell survival or neuronal replacement (e.g. neurons, glia, neural precursor cells).
Ultimately, the therapeutic events driven by endocannabinoid signalling reflect the activity of an endogenous system that regulates the preservation, rescue, repair and replacement of neurons and glia.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29856067
https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bph.14382
“G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) interact with multiple intracellular effector proteins such that different ligands may preferentially activate one signal pathway over others, a phenomenon known as signaling bias. Signaling bias can be quantified to optimize drug selection for preclinical research.
Here, we describe moderate-throughput methods to quantify signaling bias of known and novel compounds. In the example provided, we describe a method to define cannabinoid-signaling bias in a cell culture model of Huntington’s disease (HD).
Decreasing type 1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1) levels is correlated with chorea and cognitive deficits in HD. There is evidence that elevating CB1 levels and/or signaling may be beneficial for HD patients while decreasing CB1 levels and/or signaling may be detrimental.
Recent studies have found that Gαi/o-biased CB1 agonists activate extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), increase CB1 protein levels, and improve viability of cells expressing mutant huntingtin. In contrast, CB1 agonists that are β-arrestin1-biased were found to reduce CB1 protein levels and cell viability.
Measuring agonist bias of known and novel CB1 agonists will provide important data that predict CB1-specific agonists that might be beneficial in animal models of HD and, following animal testing, in HD patients. This method can also be applied to study signaling bias for other GPCRs.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29856035
https://link.springer.com/protocol/10.1007%2F978-1-4939-7825-0_25
“The influence of marijuana use on human fertility has not been well studied. We evaluated the association between female and male use of marijuana and fecundability in Pregnancy Study Online, a prospective cohort of North American couples.