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The endocannabinoid system as a target for novel anxiolytic drugs.

ABSTRACT: The endocannabinoid (eCB) system has attracted attention for its role in various behavioral and brain functions, and as a therapeutic target in neuropsychiatric disease states, including anxiety disorders and other conditions resulting from dysfunctional responses to stress. In this mini-review, we highlight components of the eCB system that offer potential 'druggable' targets for new anxiolytic medications, emphasizing some of the less well-discussed options. We discuss how selectively amplifying eCBs recruitment by interfering with eCB-degradation, via fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) and monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL), has been linked to reductions in anxiety-like behaviors in rodents and variation in human anxiety symptoms. We also discuss a non-canonical route to regulate eCB degradation that involves interfering with cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). Next, we discuss approaches to targeting eCB receptor-signaling in ways that do not involve the cannabinoid receptor subtype 1 (CB1R); by targeting the CB2R subtype and the transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1). Finally, we review evidence that cannabidiol (CBD), while representing a less specific pharmacological approach, may be another way to modulate eCBs and interacting neurotransmitter systems to alleviate anxiety. Taken together, these various approaches provide a range of plausible paths to developing novel compounds that could prove useful for treating trauma-related and anxiety disorders.

SUBMITTER: Patel S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5407316 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The endocannabinoid system as a target for novel anxiolytic drugs.

Patel Sachin S Hill Mathew N MN Cheer Joseph F JF Wotjak Carsten T CT Holmes Andrew A

Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews 20170501 Pt A

The endocannabinoid (eCB) system has attracted attention for its role in various behavioral and brain functions, and as a therapeutic target in neuropsychiatric disease states, including anxiety disorders and other conditions resulting from dysfunctional responses to stress. In this mini-review, we highlight components of the eCB system that offer potential 'druggable' targets for new anxiolytic medications, emphasizing some of the less well-discussed options. We discuss how selectively amplifyi ...[more]

PMID: 28434588

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Project description:Endogenous signaling lipids ("endocannabinoids") functionally related to Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana (Cannabis), are important biomediators and metabolic regulators critical to mammalian (patho)physiology. The growing family of endocannabinoids, along with endocannabinoid biosynthetic and inactivating enzymes, transporters, and at least two membrane-bound, G-protein coupled receptors, comprise collectively the mammalian endocannabinoid signaling system. The ubiquitous and diverse regulatory actions of the endocannabinoid system in health and disease have supported the regulatory approval of natural products and synthetic agents as drugs that alter endocannabinoid-system activity. More recent data support the concept that the endocananbinoid system may be modulated for therapeutic gain at discrete pharmacological targets with safety and efficacy. Potential medications based on the endocannabinoid system have thus become a central focus of contemporary translational research for varied indications with important unmet medical needs. One such indication, obesity, is a global pandemic whose etiology has a pathogenic component of endocannabinoid-system hyperactivity and for which current pharmacological treatment is severely limited. Application of high-affinity, selective CB1 cannabinoid receptor ligands to attenuate endocannabinoid signaling represents a state-of-the-art approach for improving obesity pharmacotherapy. To this intent, several selective CB1 receptor antagonists with varied chemical structures are currently in advanced preclinical or clinical trials, and one (rimonabant) has been approved as a weight-management drug in some markets. Emerging preclinical data suggest that CB1 receptor neutral antagonists may represent breakthrough medications superior to antagonists/inverse agonists such as rimonabant for therapeutic attenuation of CB1 receptor transmission. Since obesity is a predisposing condition for the cluster of cardiovascular and metabolic derangements collectively known as the metabolic syndrome, effective endocannabinoid-modulatory anti-obesity therapeutics would also help redress other major health problems including type-2 diabetes, atherothrombosis, inflammation, and immune disorders. Pressing worldwide healthcare needs and increasing appreciation of endocannabinoid biology make the rational design and refinement of targeted CB1 receptor modulators a promising route to future medications with significant therapeutic impact against overweight, obesity, obesity-related cardiometabolic dysregulation, and, more generally, maladies having a reward-supported appetitive component.

Project description:The endocannabinoid system plays important roles in the modulation of gastrointestinal motility and secretions. These effects are mainly mediated by the activation by the endocannabinoids anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonylglycerol (2-AG) of CB1 receptors expressed on cholinergic neurons. Cannabis sativa extracts also perform these activities, through the detection of CB1 receptors by the phytocannabinoids they contain, in particular delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol. CB1 receptors are abundantly expressed at the synaptic terminals of excitatory motor neurons and cholinergic secretomotor neurons and their activation induces prejunctional inhibition of acetylcholine release. It is thought that the endocannabinoids AEA and 2-AG, by activating these receptors, may exert a physiological control on gastrointestinal contractility and secretions. This research hypothesizes that drugs capable of inhibiting the biosynthetic and catabolic enzymes of endocannabinoids, of inhibiting the transmembrane transport of endocannabinoids or of allosterically modulating CB1 receptors induce important regulating effects of basal contractility and excitatory motor responses, induced by activation of neurons intramural cholinergics, of colonic circular smooth muscle. The effects of drugs acting on CB receptors, endocannabinoid biosynthetic and catabolic enzymes and endocannabinoid membrane transporters on basal contractility or induced by neuronal activation of colonic preparations in vitro will be evaluated. The study will enroll patients affected by colorectal cancer to undergo elective resective surgery at any stage, undergoing upfront surgery or after neo-adjuvant therapy with a therapeutic interval greater than 6 weeks. In the selected patients (see inclusion/exclusion criteria), a fresh sample of about 2.5 cm of healthy colon (healthy resection margin) will be taken, which will be taken in the operating room and sent to the laboratory for in vitro study. Expected results: The study is expected to provide new evidence regarding the induction of pharmacological effects by allosteric receptor modulators of CB1 receptors, inhibitors of endocannabinoid biosynthetic and catabolic enzymes, and inhibitors of cannabinoid transporters in the human colon, which may open interesting perspectives regarding the development of new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of constipation, diarrhea and irritable bowel syndrome.

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The endocannabinoid system as a target for novel anxiolytic drugs.

Publications

The endocannabinoid system as a target for novel anxiolytic drugs.

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