As the market for cannabis concentrate products continues to grow, the lack of research regarding the combined and differential effects of concentrated forms of the two most prominent cannabinoids, THC and CBD, becomes more glaring. The present study an...

Excitotoxicity is a paradigm used to explain the biochemical events in both acute neuronal damage and in slowly progressive, neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we show in a longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging study that Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), the main active compound in marijuana, reduces neuronal injury in neonatal rats injected intracerebrally with the Na+/K+-ATPase inhibitor ouabain to elicit excitotoxicity. In the acute phase Δ9-THC reduced the volume of cytotoxic edema by 22%. After 7 d, 36% less neuronal damage was observed in treated rats compared with control animals. Coadministration of the CB1 cannabinoid receptor antagonist SR141716 prevented the neuroprotective actions of Δ9-THC, indicating that Δ9-THC afforded protection to neurons via the CB1 receptor. In Δ9-THC-treated rats the volume of astrogliotic tissue was 36% smaller. The CB1 receptor antagonist did not block this effect. These results provide evidence that the cannabinoid system can serve to protect the brain against neu...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of cannabidiol (CBD) in alcohol reinforcement, motivation and relapse in C57BL/6J mice. To this purpose, the effects of CBD (60 mg/kg i.p.) and ethanol on rectal temperature (3 g/kg p.o.), ethanol-handli...

Cannabidiol, one of the main compounds present in the plant Cannabis sativa, has recently emerged as a potential drug for the treatment of different psychiatric disorders, based on its anxiolytic, antidepressant and antipsychotic properties. However, so...

Epidemiological and clinical studies suggest that a neurodevelopmental dysfunction could be one of the main exploratory hypotheses of schizophrenia (SCZ), which symptoms lead to severe personal and social dysfunctions. A variety of animal and human stud...

Recent clinical trials suggest that cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive component of cannabis, can reduce seizure frequency in several forms of pediatric epilepsy. While the exact anti-seizure mechanism of CBD is unclear, one leading hypothesis predic...

Migraine affects 15% of the world’s population, yet treatment options are either ineffective or accompanied by adverse effects such as medication overuse headache. Anecdotal and clinical evidence suggest that cannabinoids present in marijuana have anti-...

Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug world-wide because of its psychoactive compound, ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The plant, Cannabis sativa, however contains a myriad of other non-psychoactive cannabinoids. In Jamaica, it is smoked, drank ...

Marijuana remains the most commonly abused illicit substance in the United States, however, the effects of cannabis on cerebral blood volume (CBV) have not been fully examined. Given reported changes in frontal BOLD activation in marijuana smokers the objective of the present study was to examine both cerebral (frontal and temporal areas) and cerebellar blood volume during a period of supervised abstinence. Dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI data were collected on eleven current, long-term marijuana users (MJ) between 6 hours and 36 hours after the subject's last reported cannabis use. Resting state CBV images were also acquired in 11 healthy comparison subjects (NCs). Data were acquired in the axial plane following a bolus of gadolinium contrast agent with a 1.5-Tesla GE Signa scanner. MJ smokers demonstrated significantly increased blood volumes in the left temporal area (p= 0.018) and in the cerebellum (p= 0.023) relative to control subjects. A regression analysis revealed that age was not signif...

We have previously shown that cannabinoid agonists, including delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), are more potent and in some cases more efficacious in female than in male rats, in terms of their antinociceptive and motoric effects (Tseng & Craft, Eur J Pharmacol 430:41, 2001). In the present study, we manipulated gonadal steroid hormone state in adulthood, to determine to what extent activational effects of gonadal steroids are responsible for sex differences in sensitivity to the behavioral effects of THC. Adult Sprague-Dawley rats were gonadectomized; half of the females were implanted s.c. with estradiol (1-mm capsule/rat), and half of the males were implanted with testosterone (10-mm capsule/100 g body weight), and the rest of the rats were implanted with blank capsules of comparable length and number. Three weeks later, rats were injected with THC (5 mg/kg i.p.) or vehicle (1:1:18 emulphor:ethanol:saline) and tested for antinociception (tail withdrawal and paw pressure tests) and motor behaviors (hor...