Monthly Archives: December 2016

Cannabidiol reduces brain damage and improves functional recovery in a neonatal rat model of arterial ischemic stroke.

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Neuropharmacology

“Currently there is no effective treatment for neonatal arterial ischemic stroke (AIS).

Cannabidiol (CBD) is neuroprotective in models of newborn hypoxic-ischemic brain damage and adult stroke.

The purpose of this work was to study the protective effect of CBD in a neonatal rat model of AIS.

RESULTS:

CBD administration improved neurobehavioral function regarding strength, hemiparesis, coordination and sensorimotor performance as assessed at P15 and P38. MRI indicated that CBD did not reduce the volume of infarct but reduced the volume of perilesional gliosis. H+-MRS indicated that CBD reduced metabolic derangement and excitotoxicty, and protected astrocyte function. Histologic studies indicated that CBD reduced neuronal loss and apoptosis, and modulated astrogliosis and microglial proliferation and activation.

CONCLUSIONS:

CBD administration after Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion (MCAO) led to long-term functional recovery, reducing neuronal loss and astrogliosis, and modulating apoptosis, metabolic derangement, excitotoxicity and neuro-inflammation.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28012949

“Post-stroke administration of Cannabidiol (CBD) is neuroprotective in neonatal rats. CBD neuroprotection is sustained in the long term. CBD treatment led to functional recovery in both motor and sensorimotor domains. CBD modulated excitotoxicity, astrocyte dysfunction and microglial activation.”

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028390816305810

Marijuana use and inpatient outcomes among hospitalized patients: analysis of the nationwide inpatient sample database

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Cancer Medicine

“The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between marijuana use and health outcomes among hospitalized patients, including those hospitalized with a diagnosis of cancer.

A total of 387,608 current marijuana users were identified based on ICD-9 codes for marijuana use among hospitalized patients in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database between 2007 and 2011. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the association between marijuana use and heart failure, cardiac disease, stroke, and in-hospital mortality. All models were adjusted for age, gender, race, residential income, insurance, residential region, pain, and number of comorbidities.

Among hospitalized patients, marijuana use was associated with a 60% increased odds of stroke (OR: 1.60, 95% CI: 1.44–1.77) compared with non-users, but significantly reduced odds of heart failure (OR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.75–0.82), cardiac disease (OR: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.82–0.91), or in-hospital mortality (OR: 0.41, 95% CI: 0.38–0.44).

Among cancer patients, odds of in-hospital mortality was significantly reduced among marijuana users compared with non-users (OR: 0.44, 95% CI: 0.35–0.55).

Hospitalized marijuana users were more likely to experience a stroke compared with non-users, but less likely to experience in-hospital mortality.”

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cam4.968/full

Cannabis and epilepsy: An ancient treatment returns to the fore.

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“Cannabis has been associated with the treatment of epilepsy throughout history, and if ancient Assyrian sources referring to “hand of ghost” are considered credible, this relationship may span four millennia.

A tradition of usage continued in Arabic medicine and Ayurvedic practice in India, which led, in turn, to early experiments in Europe and North America with “Indian hemp.”

Lack of standardization, bioavailability issues, and ultimately prohibition were all factors in cannabis-based medicines failing to maintain mainstream usage in seizure treatment, but investigation was resumed in the 1970s with interesting signals noted in both laboratory and clinical settings.

Early case studies showed promise, but lacked sufficient rigor. Resumption of research coupled with mass experimentation by families of epilepsy patients has led to intense interest in cannabis-based medicines for its treatment once more, with greatest focus on cannabidiol, but additional investigation of tetrahydrocannabinol, tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, and other phytocannabinoids.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27989385

CB2 receptors regulate natural killer cells that limit allergic airway inflammation in a murine model of asthma.

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“Allergic asthma is a chronic airway inflammatory disease involving the complementary actions of innate and adaptive immune responses.

Endogenously generated cannabinoids, acting via CB2 receptors play important roles in both homeostatic and inflammatory processes. However, the contribution of CB2-acting eicosanoids to the innate events preceding sensitization to the common house dust mite (HDM) allergen, remain to be elucidated. We investigated the role of CB2 activation during allergen-induced pulmonary inflammation and NK cell effector function.

CONCLUSIONS:

Collectively, these results reveal that CB2 activation is crucial in regulating pulmonary NK cell function, and suggest that NK cells serve to limit ILC2 activation and subsequent allergic airway inflammation. CB2 inhibition may present an important target to modulate NK cell response during pulmonary inflammation.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27992060

Expression of Cannabinoid Type 1 Receptors in Human Odontoblast Cells.

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“The aim of this study was to investigate the functional expression of cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptors in human odontoblasts (HODs) and the possible internal mechanism.

In the present study, we examined the molecular and functional expression of the CB1 receptors in cultured HOD-like cells and native HODs obtained from healthy wisdom teeth.

We conclude that HODs can express functional CB1 receptors that may play an important role in mediating the physiological function in tooth pulp.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27989582

“Involvement of the endocannabinoid system in periodontal healing.”  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20233580

Bidirectional Effects of Cannabidiol on Contextual Fear Memory Extinction

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“Cannabidiol (CBD) is the major non-psychotropic constituent of the Cannabis plant and has anxiolytic therapeutic potential.

Cannabidiol (CBD) has been established to have both acute and long-lasting effects to reduce fear memory expression.

We showed that under conditions of strong fear conditioning, CBD reduced contextual fear memory expression both acutely during the extinction session as well as later at a fear retention test.

This pattern of results is consistent with CBD enhancing contextual fear memory extinction when the initial conditioning is strong, but impairing extinction when conditioning is weak. This bidirectional effect of CBD may be related to stress levels induced by conditioning and evoked at retrieval during extinction, rather than the strength of the memory per se.

 In summary, CBD had bidirectional effects on the extinction of contextual fear conditioning, depending on the nature of the initial fear conditioning. Nevertheless, in the more translationally-relevant stronger conditioning setting, CBD both acutely inhibited fear expression and enhanced extinction to produce longer lasting reductions in fear.
These observations provide further support for the potential translational use of CBD in conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder and specific phobias.”

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphar.2016.00493/full?utm_source=S-TWT&utm_medium=SNET&utm_campaign=ECO_FPHAR_XXXXXXXX_auto-dlvrit%0A

In vitro Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activity of Extracts from Six Chemotypes of Medicinal Cannabis

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“Nowadays, medicinal cannabis (Cannabis sativa L) is in the focus of the researches not only for its high content of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), but for other cannabinoids as well.

It has been reported that some of the identified substances (e.g. cannabidiol, cannabinochromene) possess anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties, which corresponds to its traditional use as wound healing agent at Pakistan.

The aim of this study was to evaluate antimicrobial and antioxidant ability of extracts from high potent Cannabis sativa chemotypes.

The six ethanolic extracts prepared from dried inflorescence of five medicinal cannabis chemotypes (Nurse Jackie, Jilly Bean, Nordle, Jack Cleaner, Conspiracy Kush) were tested by standard microdilution method against Staphylococcus aureus (three strains), Streptococcus pyogenes and the yeast Candida albicans.

Those microbial strains are present on skin and can cause complication during wound healing process.

The antioxidative activity, which plays an important role in wound healing process, was tested by oxygen radical absorbance capacity test (ORAC).

All tested extracts demonstrated high antimicrobial activity against two strains of S. aureus and S. pyogenes (MIC ranged from 4 – 16 µg·mL-1), moreover high antioxidant capacity was observed (ORAC ranged from 800 – 1300 µg TE/mg of extract).

The results indicate that cannabis has high potential to be used in ointments and other material for wound healing.

However, further research on the identification of the active components is needed.”

https://www.thieme-connect.com/DOI/DOI?10.1055/s-0036-1596302

Inhibition of cervical cancer cell proliferation by cannabidiol

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“Seventy phytocannabinoids are now known to be synthesized by Cannabis sativa (marijuana)]. The major non-psychoactive cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) exhibits antiproliferative effects against breast, cervix, colon, glioma, leukemia, ovary, prostate, and thyroid cancer cells. In this study, we investigated the antiproliferative effect of CBD on the ME-180 cervical cancer cell line. The results of our study suggest that CBD exerts its antiproliferative effect via multiple mechanisms, and it could be a potential treatment for cervical cancer.”

https://www.thieme-connect.com/DOI/DOI?10.1055/s-0036-1596862

IN VITRO ANTIMICROBIAL AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES OF TWO MEDICINAL PLANTS AGAINST SOME CLINICALLY IMPORTANT BACTERIA

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“The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antimicrobial potential of Amaranthus viridis (Chowlai) and Cannabis sativa (Bhang) against clinically important bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli.

The study revealed that leaves of A. viridis and C. sativa possess broad spectrum antimicrobial activity and natural antioxidants that can be of considerable pharmaceutical importance.

Leaf and stem extracts of A. viridis and C. sativa demonstrated a broad spectrum efficacy against Grampositive and Gram-negative bacteria. These plants also exhibited good antioxidant activity.”

https://fuuast.edu.pk/biology%20journal/images/pdfs/2016/june/paper17.pdf

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The use of cannabinoids (CBs) for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN): A retrospective review.

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“CIPN is a common toxicity associated with the use of chemotherapy (CT) agents such as platinums, taxanes and vinca alkaloids. Patients (pts) may suffer from pain that adversely affects their quality of life, regardless of their disease trajectory.

Preclinical research has shown CBs to be effective in preventing CIPN.

CBs can be beneficial for cancer pain, although their specific benefit in pts with CIPN remains unknown.

Treatment with CBs appears to benefit some pts with CIPN.

Further research is needed to explore the optimal use of CBs in pts with CIPN.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27962037