scholarly journals Neuroprotective Properties of Cannabinoids in Cellular and Animal Models: Hypotheses and Facts

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas D. Udovin ◽  
Andrea Aguilar ◽  
Tamara Kobiec ◽  
María I. Herrera ◽  
Santiago Perez Lloret ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Neurodegenerative Diseases ◽  
Cannabinoid Receptors ◽  
Neuronal Loss ◽  
Cholinergic Neurons ◽  
Endocannabinoid System ◽  
Lipid Mediators ◽  
New Drugs ◽  
Memory And Attention ◽  
Neuroprotective Drugs

Progressive neuronal loss is a typical characteristic of neurodegenerative diseases. In Parkinson’s disease, the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the basal ganglia results in impaired mobility and flawed muscle control. The loss of cholinergic neurons largely in the basal forebrain contributes to memory and attention deficits and the overall cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease. This being said, neuroprotective drugs should be expected to preserve and/or restore the functions affected by neuronal loss, and substantially prevent cell death. The endocannabinoid system, comprising lipid mediators able to bind to and activate cannabinoid receptors, has emerged as a therapeutic target of potential interest in a variety of central nervous system diseases. Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) is one of the most important endocannabinoids, which has a key role in modulating oxidative stress and inflammatory response with neuroprotective potential in neurological disorders. Neurodegenerative diseases undergo varied, progressive stages. The current therapeutical approaches are beginning to fall short when it comes to meet the expected results, urging to either develop or identify or develop new effective treatments. This chapter discusses the neuroprotective potential of new drugs, aiming to shed some light on their proposed mechanism of action and their effect in cellular and animal models of neurodegeneration.

scholarly journals From the Clinic to the Laboratory, and Back Again: Investigations on Cannabinoids and Endocannabinoid System Modulators for Treating Schizophrenia

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Leroy Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Outcome Measures ◽  
Clinical Studies ◽  
Cannabinoid Receptors ◽  
Endocannabinoid System ◽  
Clinical Work ◽  
Clinical Results ◽  
Cognitive Outcome ◽  
Experimental Drugs ◽  
First Results

The present mini-review focuses on animal models of schizophrenia that have explored the effects of cannabidiol (CBD; a non-psychoactive component of cannabis) or the pharmacological manipulation of the endocannabinoid system on behavioral and cognitive outcome measures. First, results of some relevant clinical studies in this area are summarized, and then pre-clinical work on animal models of schizophrenia based on NMDA receptor antagonism or neurodevelopmental manipulations are discussed. A brief overview is given of the theoretical framework on which these models are based, along with a concise summary of results that have been obtained. Clinical results using CBD for schizophrenia seem promising and its effects in animal models of schizophrenia support its potential as a useful pharmacotherapy. Animal models have been paramount for elucidating the actions of CBD and the function of the endocannabinoid system and for identifying novel pharmacological targets, such as cannabinoid receptors and anandamide. However, more attention needs to be placed on defining and applying independent variables and outcome measures that are comparable between pre-clinical and clinical studies. The objective of this review is, on the one hand, to emphasize the potential of such models to predict clinical response to experimental drugs, and on the other hand, to highlight areas in which research on such models could be improved.

scholarly journals Neuroprotection by Micronutrients and Cannabidiol (CBD) in Neurodegenerative Diseases

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Kedar N. Prasad ◽  
Kedar N. Prasad
Keyword(s):  
Oxidative Stress ◽  
Antioxidant Enzymes ◽  
Neurodegenerative Diseases ◽  
Glutamate Receptors ◽  
Clinical Studies ◽  
Cannabinoid Receptors ◽  
Neurological Diseases ◽  
Endocannabinoid System ◽  
Protective Proteins

The major objectives of this review are to elucidate the role of antioxidants and cannabidiol (CBD) in reducing oxidative stress, inflammation, and glutamate levels, which contribute to the pathogenesis of human neurological diseases. Antioxidants act by: (a) donation of electrons to molecules with unpaired electrons to neutralize them, (b) activation of ROS-resistant Nrf2 to enhance the levels of antioxidant enzymes, (c) restoration of deficiency of antioxidants to normal levels, (d) alterations in the expression of microRNAs, which guide their respective mRNAs to translate protective proteins, and (e) prevention of the release and toxicity of glutamate. CBD acts by: (a) activating endocannabinoid system, which consists of anandamide and archidonoylglycerol, cannabinoid receptors CB1R and CB2R, and their synthesizing and degrading enzymes, (b) acting as an agonist to non-cannabinoid receptors, such as dopamine, serotonin, and adenosine, (c) acting as an inhibitor of serotonin re-uptake, and (d) acting as an antagonist to glutamate receptors. Since antioxidants and CBD act primarily by different mechanisms, it is proposed that combination of the two may be more effective than either individually. No review on this topic has been published. Pre-clinical and clinical studies are suggested to test the efficacy of proposed combination in selected neurodegenerative diseases.

scholarly journals Cannabinoid signalling in embryonic and adult neurogenesis: possible implications for psychiatric and neurological disorders

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rúbia W. de Oliveira ◽  
Cilene L. Oliveira ◽  
Francisco S. Guimarães ◽  
Alline C. Campos
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Adult Neurogenesis ◽  
Neurological Disorders ◽  
Cannabinoid Receptors ◽  
System Development ◽  
Endocannabinoid System ◽  
Qualitative Evaluation ◽  
Nervous System Development ◽  
Cannabinoid Compounds ◽  
Anxiety Depression

AbstractCannabinoid signalling modulates several aspects of brain function, including the generation and survival of neurons during embryonic and adult periods. The present review intended to summarise evidence supporting a role for the endocannabinoid system on the control of neurogenesis and neurogenesis-dependent functions. Studies reporting participation of cannabinoids on the regulation of any step of neurogenesis and the effects of cannabinoid compounds on animal models possessing neurogenesis-dependent features were selected from Medline. Qualitative evaluation of the selected studies indicated that activation of cannabinoid receptors may change neurogenesis in embryonic or adult nervous systems alongside rescue of phenotypes in animal models of different psychiatric and neurological disorders. The text offers an overview on the effects of cannabinoids on central nervous system development and the possible links with psychiatric and neurological disorders such as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, brain ischaemia/stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. An understanding of the mechanisms by which cannabinoid signalling influences developmental and adult neurogenesis will help foster the development of new therapeutic strategies for neurodevelopmental, psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Brain-on-a-chip Devices for Drug Screening and Disease Modeling Applications

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (45) ◽  
pp. 5419-5436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice Miccoli ◽  
Dries Braeken ◽  
Yi-Chen Ethan Li
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Neurodegenerative Diseases ◽  
Drug Screening ◽  
Disease Modeling ◽  
New Drugs ◽  
Screening Process ◽  
Pharmacological Screening ◽  
The Brain

:Neurodegenerative disorders are related to the progressive functional loss of the brain, often connected to emotional and physical disability and, ultimately, to death. These disorders, strongly connected to the aging process, are becoming increasingly more relevant due to the increase of life expectancy. Current pharmaceutical treatments poorly tackle these diseases, mainly acting only on their symptomology. One of the main reasons of this is the current drug development process, which is not only expensive and time-consuming but, also, still strongly relies on animal models at the preclinical stage.:Organ-on-a-chip platforms have the potential to strongly impact and improve the drug screening process by recreating in vitro the functionality of human organs. Patient-derived neurons from different regions of the brain can be directly grown and differentiated on a brain-on-a-chip device where the disease development, progression and pharmacological treatments can be studied and monitored in real time. The model reliability is strongly improved by using human-derived cells, more relevant than animal models for pharmacological screening and disease monitoring. The selected cells will be then capable of proliferating and organizing themselves in the in vivo environment thanks to the device architecture, materials selection and bio-chemical functionalization.:In this review, we start by presenting the fundamental strategies adopted for brain-on-a-chip devices fabrication including e.g., photolithography, micromachining and 3D printing technology. Then, we discuss the state-of-theart of brain-on-a-chip platforms including their role in the study of the functional architecture of the brain e.g., blood-brain barrier, or of the most diffuse neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. At last, the current limitations and future perspectives of this approach for the development of new drugs and neurodegenerative diseases modeling will be discussed.

scholarly journals Role of the Endocannabinoid System in the Central Regulation of Nonmammalian Vertebrate Reproduction

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Cottone ◽  
Valentina Pomatto ◽  
Patrizia Bovolin
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Cannabinoid Receptors ◽  
Endocannabinoid System ◽  
Central Regulation ◽  
Signalling Molecules ◽  
Reproductive Control ◽  
Amphibian Reproduction ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Insight Into

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) has a well-documented pivotal role in the control of mammalian reproductive functions, by acting at multiple levels, that is, central (CNS) and local (gonads) levels. Since studies performed in animal models other than mammals might provide further insight into the biology of these signalling molecules, in the present paper we review the comparative data pointing toward the endocannabinoid involvement in the reproductive control of non-mammalian vertebrates, focussing in particular on the central regulation of teleost and amphibian reproduction. The morphofunctional distribution of brain cannabinoid receptors will be discussed in relation to other crucial signalling molecules involved in the control of reproductive functions, such as GnRH, dopamine, aromatase, and pituitary gonadotropins.

scholarly journals Jekyll and Hyde: Two Faces of Cannabinoid Signaling in Male and Female Fertility

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 427-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haibin Wang ◽  
Sudhansu K. Dey ◽  
Mauro Maccarrone
Keyword(s):  
Cannabinoid Receptors ◽  
Preimplantation Embryo ◽  
Endocannabinoid System ◽  
Lipid Mediators ◽  
Female Fertility ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Preimplantation Embryo Development ◽  
Regulatory Systems ◽  
Complicated Process

Mammalian reproduction is a complicated process designed to diversify and strengthen the genetic complement of the offspring and to safeguard regulatory systems at various steps for propagating procreation. An emerging concept in mammalian reproduction is the role of endocannabinoids, a group of endogenously produced lipid mediators, that bind to and activate cannabinoid receptors. Although adverse effects of cannabinoids on fertility have been implicated for years, the mechanisms by which they exert these effects were not clearly understood. With the identification of cannabinoid receptors, endocannabinoid ligands, their key synthetic and hydrolytic pathways, and the generation of mouse models missing cannabinoid receptors, a wealth of information on the significance of cannabinoid/endocannabinoid signaling in spermatogenesis, fertilization, preimplantation embryo development, implantation, and postimplantation embryonic growth has been generated. This review focuses on various aspects of the endocannabinoid system in male and female fertility. It is hoped that a deeper insight would lead to potential clinical applications of the endocannabinoid signaling as a target for correcting infertility and improving reproductive health in humans.

Natural Products for the Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (34) ◽  
pp. 5790-5828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ze Wang ◽  
Chunyang He ◽  
Jing-Shan Shi
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Natural Products ◽  
Neurodegenerative Diseases ◽  
Neuroprotective Effect ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
New Drugs ◽  
Progressive Degeneration ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
And Function

Neurodegenerative diseases are a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by the progressive degeneration of the structure and function of the central nervous system or peripheral nervous system. Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Parkinson's Disease (PD) and Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) are the common neurodegenerative diseases, which typically occur in people over the age of 60. With the rapid development of an aged society, over 60 million people worldwide are suffering from these uncurable diseases. Therefore, the search for new drugs and therapeutic methods has become an increasingly important research topic. Natural products especially those from the Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCMs), are the most important sources of drugs, and have received extensive interest among pharmacist. In this review, in order to facilitate further chemical modification of those useful natural products by pharmacists, we will bring together recent studies in single natural compound from TCMs with neuroprotective effect.

(±)-3,5-Bis(substitutedmethyl)pyrrolidines: Application to the Synthesis of Analogues of glycine-L-proline-L-glutamic Acid (GPE)

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joana Ferreira da Costa ◽  
Xerardo Garcia-Mera ◽  
David Silva Poceiro ◽  
Olga Caamano
Keyword(s):  
Therapeutic Strategy ◽  
Dimethyl Ester ◽  
Neuronal Loss ◽  
New Drugs ◽  
Ester Hydrochloride ◽  
1H And 13C Nmr ◽  
Survival Factor ◽  
Synthetic Strategy ◽  
Β Amyloid ◽  
Structural Simplicity

Backiground: Alzheimer's disease is a fatal, complex, neurodegenerative disease over 46 million people live with dementia in the world characterized by the presence of plaques containing β-amyloid and neuronal loss. The GPE acts as a survival factor against β-amyloid insult in brain and suggests a possible new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of Central Nervous System injuries and neurodegenerative disorders. The structural simplicity of GPE makes it a suitable lead molecule for the development of new drugs that to cross the blood-brain barrier. Objective: With these aims in mind, we embarked on a synthetic program focused on the modification of the Lproline residue of GPE in order to investigate its importance on the neuroprotective activities. Method: The general synthetic strategy involved the preparation of several modified proline residues, which were subsequently coupled to N-Boc-glycine-OH and glutamic dimethyl ester hydrochloride. Results: the mixture of compounds 11 was obtained in good yields (72%) under these conditions, and this was readily separated by column chromatography and the components were identified by 1H and 13C NMR spectral, as well as by its EI HRMS. Conclusion: Compound (±)-8 was coupled with L-glutamic dimethyl ester hydrochloride gave a mixture of dipeptides 9a and 9b in a satisfactory yield. The use of T3P as coupling agent of the mixture 10a and 10b with Boc-glycine provided a new analogue of GPE, tripeptide 11, obtained with an overall yield of 65% from (±)-1.

scholarly journals Is There a Brain Microbiome?

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 263310552110187
Author(s):  
Christopher D Link
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Neurodegenerative Diseases ◽  
Ground Truth ◽  
Healthy Human ◽  
Strong Motivation ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Brain

Numerous studies have identified microbial sequences or epitopes in pathological and non-pathological human brain samples. It has not been resolved if these observations are artifactual, or truly represent population of the brain by microbes. Given the tempting speculation that resident microbes could play a role in the many neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases that currently lack clear etiologies, there is a strong motivation to determine the “ground truth” of microbial existence in living brains. Here I argue that the evidence for the presence of microbes in diseased brains is quite strong, but a compelling demonstration of resident microbes in the healthy human brain remains to be done. Dedicated animal models studies may be required to determine if there is indeed a “brain microbiome.”

scholarly journals Emerging hiPSC Models for Drug Discovery in Neurodegenerative Diseases

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (15) ◽  
pp. 8196
Author(s):  
Dorit Trudler ◽  
Swagata Ghatak ◽  
Stuart A. Lipton
Keyword(s):  
Drug Discovery ◽  
Animal Models ◽  
Neurodegenerative Diseases ◽  
Disease Modeling ◽  
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell ◽  
Neural Function ◽  
Neural Cells ◽  
Human Samples ◽  
Healthy Donors ◽  
Induced Pluripotent

Neurodegenerative diseases affect millions of people worldwide and are characterized by the chronic and progressive deterioration of neural function. Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Huntington’s disease (HD), represent a huge social and economic burden due to increasing prevalence in our aging society, severity of symptoms, and lack of effective disease-modifying therapies. This lack of effective treatments is partly due to a lack of reliable models. Modeling neurodegenerative diseases is difficult because of poor access to human samples (restricted in general to postmortem tissue) and limited knowledge of disease mechanisms in a human context. Animal models play an instrumental role in understanding these diseases but fail to comprehensively represent the full extent of disease due to critical differences between humans and other mammals. The advent of human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) technology presents an advantageous system that complements animal models of neurodegenerative diseases. Coupled with advances in gene-editing technologies, hiPSC-derived neural cells from patients and healthy donors now allow disease modeling using human samples that can be used for drug discovery.

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