Category Archives: Uncategorized

Involvement of spinal cannabinoid receptors in the antipruritic effects of WIN 55,212-2, a cannabinoid receptor agonist.

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Clinical and Experimental Dermatology

“Cannabinoids have been used for their analgesic and euphoric effects for millennia, but recently the antipruritic effects of cannabis have been discovered.

Considering the similarities between pain and itch sensations, we hypothesized that cannabinoid receptors may play a role in the antipruritic effects of cannabinoids.

Our findings support prior researches indicating that cannabinoids exert antipruritic effects. Moreover, our results show that the antipruritic effects of cannabinoids are partially mediated by spinal CB1 receptors.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29424035

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ced.13398/abstract

“antipruritic: 1. Preventing or relieving itching. 2. An agent that relieves itching.”   https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/antipruritic

Detection of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in oral fluid, blood and urine following oral consumption of low-content THC hemp oil.

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 Forensic Science International

“Hemp-derivative (Cannabis sativa L.) food products containing trace levels of Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are proposed for consumption in Australia and New Zealand; however, it is unclear whether use of these products will negatively affect existing drug screening protocols.

Consumption of low-content THC oil does not result in positive biological assessments.

It is therefore highly unlikely that ingestion of products containing these levels of THC will negatively impact existing region-specific drug driving enforcement protocols.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29408718

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379073817305492?via%3Dihub

Evaluation of cognitive functions in individuals with synthetic cannabinoid use disorder and comparison to individuals with cannabis use disorder.

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Psychiatry Research Home

“The use of synthetic cannabinoid has been increasing throughout the world and has become a major public health problem.

The present study aims to investigate the attention, memory, visuospatial and executive functions in individuals with synthetic cannabinoid use disorder and compare the results with findings obtained from individuals with cannabis use disorder and healthy volunteers with no substance use.

Impairments in attention, memory, executive and visuospatial functions were identified in individuals with synthetic cannabinoid use disorder and these impairments were found to be significantly greater than in individuals with cannabis use disorder and healthy controls.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29407568

http://www.psy-journal.com/article/S0165-1781(17)30999-X/fulltext

The endocannabinoid system in canine Steroid-Responsive Meningitis-Arteritis and Intraspinal Spirocercosis.

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“Endocannabinoids (ECs) are involved in immunomodulation, neuroprotection and control of inflammation in the central nervous system (CNS).

Activation of cannabinoid type 2 receptors (CB2) is known to diminish the release of pro-inflammatory factors and enhance the secretion of anti-inflammatory cytokines.

Furthermore, the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG) has been proved to induce the migration of eosinophils in a CB2 receptor-dependent manner in peripheral blood and activate neutrophils independent of CB activation in humans.

The present study revealed an upregulated endocannabinoid system in dogs with inflammatory CNS diseases, highlighting the endocannabinoid system as a potential target for treatment of inflammatory CNS diseases.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29408878

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0187197

Epidemiological characteristics, safety and efficacy of medical cannabis in the elderly.

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“There is a substantial growth in the use of medical cannabis in recent years and with the aging of the population, medical cannabis is increasingly used by the elderly.

We aimed to assess the characteristics of elderly people using medical cannabis and to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the treatment.

Our study finds that the therapeutic use of cannabis is safe and efficacious in the elderly population. Cannabis use may decrease the use of other prescription medicines, including opioids.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29398248

“Medical cannabis significantly safer for elderly with chronic pain than opioids: study” https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-02-medical-cannabis-significantly-safer-elderly.html
“Medical cannabis significantly safer for elderly with chronic pain than opioids” https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-02/aabu-mcs021318.php

Cannabidiol appears to protect against long-term negative psychiatric effects of THC

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“A study reported Sept. 5 by neuroscientists at Indiana University finds that a non-psychoactive compound in cannabis called cannabidiol, or CBD, appears to protect against the long-term negative psychiatric effects of THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.” https://www.news-medical.net/news/20170906/Cannabidiol-appears-to-protect-against-long-term-negative-psychiatric-effects-of-THC.aspx

“CBD may protect against psychiatric risk from high-THC cannabis strains. IU neuroscientists find cannabidiol reduces symptoms such as impaired memory in adolescent mice simultaneously exposed to THC”  https://news.iu.edu/stories/2017/09/iub/releases/06-cbd-study.html

Analysis of cannabinoids in commercial hemp seed oil and decarboxylation kinetics studies of cannabidiolic acid (CBDA).

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Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis

“Hemp seed oil from Cannabis sativa L. is a very rich natural source of important nutrients, not only polyunsaturated fatty acids and proteins, but also terpenes and cannabinoids, which contribute to the overall beneficial effects of the oil.

Hence, it is important to have an analytical method for the determination of these components in commercial samples. At the same time, it is also important to assess the safety of the product in terms of amount of any psychoactive cannabinoid present therein.

This work presents the development and validation of a highly sensitive, selective and rapid HPLC-UV method for the qualitative and quantitative determination of the main cannabinoids, namely cannabidiolic acid (CBDA), tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), cannabidiol (CBD), tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabinol (CBN), cannabigerol (CBG) and cannabidivarin (CBDV), present in 13 commercial hemp seed oils.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29182999

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0731708517322367?via%3Dihub

The Grass Might Be Greener: Medical Marijuana Patients Exhibit Altered Brain Activity and Improved Executive Function after 3 Months of Treatment.

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“The vast majority of states have enacted full or partial medical marijuana (MMJ) programs, causing the number of patients seeking certification for MMJ use to increase dramatically in recent years.

In the present study, MMJ patients seeking treatment for a variety of documented medical conditions were assessed prior to initiating MMJ treatment and after 3 months of treatment as part of a larger longitudinal study.

Following 3 months of treatment, MMJ patients demonstrated improved task performance accompanied by changes in brain activation patterns within the cingulate cortex and frontal regions.

Interestingly, after MMJ treatment, brain activation patterns appeared more similar to those exhibited by healthy controls from previous studies than at pre-treatment, suggestive of a potential normalization of brain function relative to baseline.

Moreover, patients in the current study also reported improvements in clinical state and health-related measures as well as notable decreases in prescription medication use, particularly opioids and benzodiapezines after 3 months of treatment.

Further research is needed to clarify the specific neurobiologic impact, clinical efficacy, and unique effects of MMJ for a range of indications and how it compares to recreational MJ use.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29387010

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2017.00983/full

Adolescent cannabis use and brain systems supporting adult working memory encoding, maintenance, and retrieval

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“Given prior reports of adverse effects of cannabis use on working memory, an executive function with a protracted developmental course during adolescence, we examined associations between developmental patterns of cannabis use and adult working memory (WM) processes.

Within repeated cannabis users, greater levels of total cannabis use were associated with performance-related increases in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation during maintenance.

Surprisingly, however, at the group level, cannabis users generally performed better than participants who reported never using cannabis (faster RT, higher accuracy).”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29253654

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811917310637

“Why Pot Smokers Scored Higher Than Nonsmokers on This Memory Test. Among a sample of 28-year-olds who took a working-memory test while undergoing an MRI brain scan, individuals who started smoking marijuana in adolescence performed just as well or even better than individuals who never smoked cannabis, the study found.” https://www.livescience.com/61574-adolescent-cannabis-use-memory-study.html

Cholesterol-induced stimulation of platelet aggregation is prevented by a hempseed-enriched diet.

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Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology

“Hypercholesterolemia indirectly increases the risk for myocardial infarction by enhancing the ability of platelets to aggregate.

Diets enriched with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have been shown to reduce the detrimental effects of cholesterol on platelet aggregation.

This study investigated whether dietary hempseed, a rich source of PUFAs, inhibits platelet aggregation under normal and hypercholesterolemic conditions.

The results of this study demonstrate that when hempseed is added to a cholesterol-enriched diet, cholesterol-induced platelet aggregation returns to control levels.”

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18418423
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/10.1139/Y08-011#.Wmz3-minHrc