Tag Archives: Cannabinoids

Liver’s cannabinoid receptors could be targeted to combat liver cancer in some patients

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News Medical - Life Sciences & Medicine

“A new study reveals that the liver’s cannabinoid receptors could be targeted to fight liver cancer in some patients; and it offers a way to predict what treatments have the best chance of working.

The body’s own marijuana-like substances, — called endocannabinoids — are known to increase the biosynthesis of fatty acids in the liver by activating cannabinoid type 1 receptors (CB1). CB1 receptors can be found in the brain, lungs, liver and kidney, and they are involved in a number of physiological processes, including mood, appetite, pain sensation and memory.

The study found that the expression of these receptors increased in cancerous liver samples, when compared with cancer-free samples. This suggests that drugs that block CB1 receptors may be effective against HCC.

“Although such drugs were found to cause unwanted psychiatric side effects, non brain-penetrant CB1 receptor antagonists devoid of such side effects — but retaining therapeutic efficacy via peripheral CB1 receptors — are currently being developed,” says study co-author George Kunos, scientific director at the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).”

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20151123/Livers-cannabinoid-receptors-could-be-targeted-to-combat-liver-cancer-in-some-patients.aspx

Cannabinoid receptors and their role in neuroprotection.

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“Evidence has accumulated over the last few years suggesting that endocannabinoid-based drugs may potentially be useful to reduce the effects of neurodegeneration. In fact, exogenous and endogenous cannabinoids were shown to exert neuroprotection in a variety of in vitro and in vivo models of neuronal injury via different mechanisms,”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16052037

The endocannabinoid system as a target for the treatment of neuronal damage.

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“Cannabinoids have been proposed as clinically promising neuroprotective molecules, based on their capability to normalize glutamate homeostasis, reducing excitotoxicity, to inhibit calcium influx, lowering intracellular levels and the subsequent activation of calcium-dependent destructive pathways, and to reduce the generation of reactive oxygen intermediates or to limit their toxicity, decreasing oxidative injury.

Cannabinoids are also able to decrease local inflammatory events by acting on glial processes that regulate neuronal survival, and to restore blood supply by reducing vasocontriction produced by several endothelium-derived factors.

Treatment of neurodegenerative disorders is a challenge for neuroscientists and neurologists. Unhappily, the efficacy of available medicines is still poor and there is an urgent need for novel neuroprotective agents. Cannabinoids can serve this purpose given their recognized antiexcitotoxic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20230193

Self-Medication of Somatic and Psychiatric Conditions Using Botanical Marijuana.

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“As a complement to research evaluating botanical marijuana as a medical therapy for various somatic and psychiatric conditions, there is a growing body of research assessing marijuana users’ self-reports of the symptoms and conditions for which they use marijuana without a physician’s recommendation.

As part of two larger web-based surveys and one in-situ survey at an outdoor marijuana festival, we asked regular marijuana users if they consumed the drug without a physician’s recommendation and, if so, to describe (or select from a checklist) the conditions for which they used marijuana as a medication.

Participants reported using marijuana to self-medicate a wide variety of both somatic conditions (such as pain, diabetes, and irritable bowel syndrome) and psychiatric conditions (such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia).

Because fewer than half of the American states, and only a few countries, allow physicians to recommend medicinal marijuana, these findings may be of interest to clinicians as they treat patients, to lawmakers and policymakers as they consider legislation allowing physicians to recommend botanical marijuana for somatic and psychiatric conditions, and to researchers evaluating conditions that individuals elect to self-medicate using botanical marijuana.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26595140

The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on Body Weight.

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“This study is the first to examine the effects of medical marijuana laws (MMLs) on body weight, physical wellness, and exercise.

Using data from the 1990 to 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and a difference-in-difference approach, we find that the enforcement of MMLs is associated with a 2% to 6% decline in the probability of obesity.

We find some evidence of age-specific heterogeneity in mechanisms. For older individuals, MML-induced increases in physical mobility may be a relatively important channel, while for younger individuals, a reduction in consumption of alcohol, a substitute for marijuana, appears more important.

These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that MMLs may be more likely to induce marijuana use for health-related reasons among older individuals, and cause substitution toward lower-calorie recreational ‘highs’ among younger individuals.

Our estimates suggest that MMLs induce a $58 to $115 per-person annual reduction in obesity-related medical costs.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26602324

Involvement of opioid system in antidepressant-like effect of the cannabinoid CB1 receptor inverse agonist AM-251 after physical stress in mice.

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“Cannabinoid inverse agonists possess antidepressant-like properties…

Numerous studies reported the interaction between opioid and cannabinoid pathways.

In this study, we used acute foot-shock stress in mice to investigate the involvement of opioid pathway in the antidepressant-like effect of the cannabinoid CB1 receptor inverse agonist AM-251.

In conclusion, the present study for the first time revealed the possible role of opioid signaling in the antidepressant-like properties of AM-251 in foot-shock stress model. “

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26609670

Daily Marijuana Use Is Not Associated with Brain Morphometric Measures in Adolescents or Adults

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“No statistically significant differences were found between daily users and nonusers on volume or shape in the regions of interest.

Effect sizes suggest that the failure to find differences was not due to a lack of statistical power, but rather was due to the lack of even a modest effect.

In sum, the results indicate that, when carefully controlling for alcohol use, gender, age, and other variables, there is no association between marijuana use and standard volumetric or shape measurements of subcortical structures.

The press may not cite studies that do not find sensational effects, but these studies are still extremely important. While the literature clearly supports a deleterious short-term effect of marijuana on learning and memory, it seems unlikely that marijuana use has the same level of long-term deleterious effects on brain morphology as other drugs like alcohol.”

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/35/4/1505.full

Long-Term Data of Efficacy, Safety and Tolerability in a Real Life Setting of THC/CBD Oromucosal Spray-Treated Multiple Sclerosis Patients.

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“Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)/cannabidiol (CBD) oromucosal spray was approved as add-on therapy for spasticity in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

We showed our forty-weeks post-marketing experience regarding efficacy and safety of THC/CBD spray in an Italian cohort of 102 MS patients…

In conclusion, treatment with THC/CBD spray appears to be a valid answer to some of the unmet needs in MS patients, such as spasticity and other refractory-to-treatment symptoms. “

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26608223

http://www.thctotalhealthcare.com/category/multiple-sclerosis-ms/

A Sativex(®) -like combination of phytocannabinoids as a disease-modifying therapy in a viral model of multiple sclerosis.

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“Sativex(®) is an oromucosal spray, containing equivalent amounts of Δ(9) -tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ(9) -THC) and cannabidiol (CBD)-botanical drug substance (BDS), which has been approved for the treatment of spasticity and pain associated to multiple sclerosis (MS).

In this study, we investigated whether Sativex may also serve as a disease-modifying agent in the Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus-induced demyelinating disease model of MS.

The data support the therapeutic potential of Sativex to slow MS progression and its relevance in CNS repair.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25857324

The disease-modifying effects of a Sativex-like combination of phytocannabinoids in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis are preferentially due to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol acting through CB1 receptors.

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“Sativex®, an equimolecular combination of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol-botanical drug substance (Δ9-THC-BDS) and cannabidiol-botanical drug substance (CBD-BDS), is a licensed medicine that may be prescribed for alleviating specific symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS) such as spasticity and pain.

However, further evidence suggest that it could be also active as disease-modifying therapy given the immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective properties of their two major components.

In this study, we investigated this potential in the experimental autoimmune encephalitis (EAE) model of MS in mice.

We compared the effect of a Sativex-like combination of Δ9-THC-BDS (10mg/kg) and CBD-BDS (10mg/kg) with Δ9-THC-BDS (20mg/kg) or CBD-BDS (20mg/kg) administered separately by intraperitoneal administration to EAE mice.

Treatments were initiated at the time that symptoms appear and continued up to the first relapse of the disease.

The results show that the treatment with a Sativex-like combination significantly improved the neurological deficits typical of EAE mice, in parallel with a reduction in the number and extent of cell aggregates present in the spinal cord which derived from cell infiltration to the CNS.

These effects were completely reproduced by the treatment with Δ9-THC-BDS alone, but not by CBD-BDS alone which only delayed the onset of the disease without improving disease progression and reducing the cell infiltrates in the spinal cord.

Next, we investigated the potential targets involved in the effects of Δ9-THC-BDS by selectively blocking CB1 or PPAR-γ receptors, and we found a complete reversion of neurological benefits and the reduction in cell aggregates only with rimonabant, a selective CB1 receptor antagonist.

Collectively, our data support the therapeutic potential of Sativex as a phytocannabinoid formulation capable of attenuating EAE progression, and that the active compound was Δ9-THC-BDS acting through CB1 receptors.”