A single administration of cocaine or D-amphetamine produces acute hyperlocomotion and long-lasting increased sensitivity to subsequent injections. This locomotor sensitization reveals the powerful ability of psychostimulants to induce brain plasticity and may participate in the alterations that underlie addiction. We investigated the role of cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1-R) in the effects o...

There are multiple neurotransmitters and neuromodulator systems mediating memory formation among which the endocannabinoid system plays a critical role in the memory formation by modulating the release of many neurotransmitters. Nucleus accumbens appears to have a site in the central of neuronal circuits of the limbic system and to be responsible for the integration and consolidation of inputs ...

The endocannabinoid system is a modulatory system that has been strongly associated with the regulation of functions as learning and memory, pain perception and sensory physiology in many areas of the central nervous system. However, although a role in sensory processing has been demonstrated at the level of the thalamus, the influence of the endocannabinoid system on thalamic rhythms and oscil...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The activation of CB(2) receptors induces analgesia in experimental models of chronic pain. The present experiments were designed to study whether the activation of peripheral or spinal CB(2) receptors relieves thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia in two models of bone cancer pain. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH NCTC 2472 osteosarcoma or B16-F10 melanoma cells were intr...

Depolarization-induced suppression of inhibition (DSI) is a form of retrograde signaling at GABAergic synapses that is initiated by the calcium- and depolarization-dependent release of endocannabinoids from postsynaptic neurons. In the neocortex, pyramidal neurons (PNs) appear to use DSI as a mechanism for regulating somatic inhibition from a subpopulation of GABAergic inputs that express the t...

Although many feeding protocols induce obesity, few use multiple foods to analyze diet selection within a single group of animals. To this end, we describe a protocol using time-limited access to a dessert that induces hyperphagia and body weight gain while allowing simple analysis of diet selection. Female retired breeder Sprague-Dawley rats were provided with ad libitum access to standard moi...

Inhibition of cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) has shown efficacy in reducing body weight and improving metabolic parameters, with the effects correlating with target engagement in the brain. The peripheral effects of inhibiting the CB1 receptor has been appreciated through studies in diet-induced obese and liver-specific CB1 knockout mice. In this article, we systematically investigated gene expre...

I read the recently published article in Vol 6 (3) of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience entitled “Study the Effect of Endocannabinoid System on Rat Behavior in Elevated Plus- Maze” by Komaki et al. (2015). In this valuable article, the authors uncovered the effects of AM251 as a CB1 receptor antagonist on anxiety-like behaviors of rats using elevated plus-maze

Objective: Considering that cannabinoids protect neurons against neurodegeneration, in this study, the neuroprotective effect of WIN55,212-2 in paraoxon induced neurotoxicity in PC12 cells and the role of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor were evaluated. Materials and Methods: In this study PC12 cells were maintained in Dulbecco's modified eagle’s medium (DMEM+F12) culture medium supplem...