Black, S. C. (2004). "Cannabinoid receptor antagonists and obesity." Curr Opin Investig Drugs 5(4): 389-94. The cannabinoid-1 (CB1) receptor plays a role in the regulation of appetitive behavior. Exogenously administered cannabinoid receptor agonists stimulate food consumption in animals and humans. Endogenous cannabinoid receptor agonists are present in the brain, and the brain level of these ...

Neuroprotective effects have been described for many cannabinoids in several neurotoxicity models. However, the exact mechanisms have not been clearly understood yet. In the present study, antioxidant neuroprotective effects of cannabinoids and the involvement of the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) were analysed in detail employing cell-free biochemical assays and cultured cells. As it was reporte...

OBJECTIVE Blockade of the CB1 receptor is one of the promising strategies for the treatment of obesity. Although antagonists suppress food intake and reduce body weight, the role of central versus peripheral CB1 activation on weight loss and related metabolic parameters remains to be elucidated. We therefore specifically assessed and compared the respective potential relevance of central nervou...

Type 1 cannabinoid (CB1) receptors mediate widespread synaptic plasticity, but how this contributes to systems-level plasticity and development in vivo is unclear. We tested whether CB1 signaling is required for development and plasticity of the whisker map in rat somatosensory cortex. Treatment with the CB1 antagonist AM251 during an early critical period for layer (L) 2/3 development (beginni...

Clinical usage of cannabinoids in chronic pain states is limited by their central side effects and the pharmacodynamic tolerance that sets in after repeated dosage. Analgesic tolerance to cannabinoids in vivo could be caused by agonist-induced downregulation and intracellular trafficking of cannabinoid receptors, but little is known about the molecular mechanisms involved. We show here that the...

Although endocannabinoid signaling is important for certain aspects of gastrointestinal homeostasis, the role of the cannabinoid receptors (CB) in colorectal cancer has not been defined. Here we show that CB1 expression was silenced in human colorectal cancer due to methylation of the CB1 promoter. Our genetic and pharmacologic studies reveal that loss or inhibition of CB1 accelerated intestina...

Metabolic flexibility allows rapid adaptation to dietary change, however, little is known about the CNS mechanisms regulating this process. Neurons in the hypothalamic ventromedial nucleus (VMN) participate in energy balance and are the target of the metabolically relevant hormone leptin. Cannabinoid type-1 (CB1) receptors are expressed in VMN neurons, but the specific contribution of endocanna...

AIM The localization of CB1 receptors in the spinal cord, spinal roots, dorsal root ganglion (DRG), and peripheral nerve of the rat was determined. METHODS We studied the distribution of CB1 cannabinoid receptors by immunohistochemistry using an antibody raised against the N-terminal of the receptor. RESULTS The spinal cord showed numerous transverse fibers labelled for CB1 receptors throug...

objective (s):hyperglycemia is widely recognized as the underlying cause for some debilitating conditions in diabetic patients. the role of cannabinoid cb1 and vanilloid trpv1 receptors and their endogenous agonists, endovanilloids, in diabetic neuropathy is shown in many studies. here we have used pc12 cell line to investigate the possible influence of glucose concentration in culture medium o...

Cannabinoids, including the endogenous ligand anandamide, elicit pronounced hypotension and bradycardia through the activation of CB1 cannabinoid receptors. A second endogenous cannabinoid, 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG), has been proposed to be the natural ligand of CB1 receptors. In the present study, we examined the effects of 2-AG on mean arterial pressure and heart rate in anesthetized mic...