“Accumulating evidence suggests that the endocannabinoid system is a promising target for the treatment of a variety of health conditions. Two paths of cannabinoid drug development have emerged. One approach is focused on developing medications that are directly derived from the cannabis plant. The other utilizes a single molecule approach whereby individual phytocannabinoids or novel cannabinoids with therapeutic potential are identified and synthesized for pharmaceutical development. This commentary discusses the unique challenges and merits of botanical vs single molecule cannabinoid drug development strategies, highlights how both can be impacted by legalization of cannabis via legislative processes, and also addresses regulatory and public health considerations that are important to consider as cannabinoid medicine advances as a discipline.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30179534 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09540261.2018.1474730?journalCode=iirp20]]>
Tag Archives: cannabis
Antiapoptotic effects of cannabidiol in an experimental model of cognitive decline induced by brain iron overload.
“Iron accumulation in the brain has been recognized as a common feature of both normal aging and neurodegenerative diseases. Cognitive dysfunction has been associated to iron excess in brain regions in humans. We have previously described that iron overload leads to severe memory deficits, including spatial, recognition, and emotional memory impairments in adult rats.
In the present study we investigated the effects of neonatal iron overload on proteins involved in apoptotic pathways, such as Caspase 8, Caspase 9, Caspase 3, Cytochrome c, APAF1, and PARP in the hippocampus of adult rats, in an attempt to establish a causative role of iron excess on cell death in the nervous system, leading to memory dysfunction.
Cannabidiol (CBD), the main non-psychotropic component of Cannabis sativa, was examined as a potential drug to reverse iron-induced effects on the parameters analyzed.
These results suggest that iron can trigger cell death pathways by inducing intrinsic apoptotic proteins. The reversal of iron-induced effects by CBD indicates that it has neuroprotective potential through its anti-apoptotic action.”
“In summary, we have shown that iron treatment in the neonatal period disrupts the apoptotic intrinsic pathway. This finding may place iron excess as a central component in neurodegenerative processes since many neurodegenerative disorders are accompanied by iron accumulation in brain regions. Moreover, indiscriminate iron supplementation to toddlers and infants, modeled here by iron overload in the neonatal period, has been considered a potential environmental risk factor for the development of neurodegenerative disorders later in life. Our findings also strongly suggest that CBD has neuroprotective effects, at least in part by blocking iron-induced apoptosis even at later stages, following iron overload, which puts CBD as a potential therapeutic agent in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.”
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Cannabis cures the spine.
“Cannabis cures the spine.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30172587
“Huo and colleagues elegantly demonstrate that the endogenous cannabinoid system can be modulated to provide neuroprotection in ischemic injury of the spine. Modulation of the endocannabinoid system attenuates ischemic spinal cord injury through CB2-mediated inhibition of the GAPDH/Siah1 signaling cascade, positively influencing neuron survival and function.” https://www.jtcvs.org/article/S0022-5223(18)32080-4/fulltext]]>Cannabidiol as a suggested candidate for treatment of autism spectrum disorder.
“Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by persistent deficits in social communication, restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities and often intellectual disabilities.
No effective treatment for the core symptoms of ASD is currently available.
There is increasing interest in cannabinoids, especially cannabidiol (CBD), as monotherapy or add-on treatment for the core symptoms and co-morbidities of ASD.
In this review we summarize the available pre-clinical and clinical data regarding the safety and effectiveness of medical cannabis, including CBD, in young ASD patients.
Cannabidiol seems to be a candidate for the treatment of ASD.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30171992
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278584618304445?via%3Dihub
“The recent legalization of recreational marijuana use in some parts of the world, the discovery of new indications for the clinical application of 
“Compounds extracted from the cannabis plant, including the psychoactive Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and related phytocannabinoids, evoke multiple diverse biological actions as ligands of the G protein-coupled 
“Anticonvulsant effects of cannabidiol (CBD), a nonpsychoactive 
“This meta-analysis paper describes the analysis of observational clinical studies on the treatment of refractory epilepsy with cannabidiol (CBD)-based products. Beyond attempting to establish the safety and efficacy of such products, we also investigated if there is enough evidence to assume any difference in efficacy between CBD-rich extracts compared to purified CBD products.
The systematic search took place in February/2017 and updated in December/2017 using the keywords “epilepsy” or “Dravet” or “Lennox-Gastaut” or “CDKL5” combined with “Cannabis”, “cannabinoid”, “cannabidiol” or “CBD” resulting in 199 papers. The qualitative assessment resulted in 11 valid references, with an average impact factor of 8.1 (ranging from 1.4 to 47.8). The categorical data of a total of 670 patients were analyzed by Fischer test. The average daily dose ranged between 1 and 50 mg/kg, with treatment length from 3 to 12 months (mean 6.2 months).
Two thirds of patients reported improvement in the frequency of convulsive crisis (399/622, 64%). There were more reports of improvement from patients treated with CBD-rich extracts (318/447, 71%) than patients treated with purified CBD (81/223, 36%), with statistical significance (p<0.0001).
Nevertheless, when the standard clinical threshold of a “50% reduction or more in the frequency of convulsive crisis” was applied, only 39% of the individuals were considered “responders”, and there was no difference (p=0.56) between treatments with CBD-rich extracts (97/255, 38%) and purified CBD (94/223, 42%).
Patients treated with CBD-rich extracts reported lower average dose (6.1 mg/kg/day) than those using purified CBD (27.1 mg/kg/day). The reports of mild (109/285 vs 291/346, p<0.0001) and severe (23/285 vs 77/346, p<0.0001) adverse effects were more frequent in products containing purified CBD than in CBD-rich extracts.
CBD-rich extracts seem to present a better therapeutic profile than purified CBD, at least in this population of patients with refractory epilepsy. The roots of this difference is likely due to synergistic effects of CBD with other phytocompounds (aka Entourage effect), but this remains to be confirmed in controlled clinical studies.”
“Clinical studies indicate that cannabidiol (CBD), the primary non-addictive component of