Abstract To explore brain function using functional connectivity and network topology derived from electroencephalogram (EEG) in patients with pharmacoresistant epileptic encephalopathy with cannabidiol as adjunctive antiepileptic treatment. Sixteen epileptic patients participated in the study, six of whom had epileptic encephalopathy with a stable dose of cannabidiol Epidiolex (CBD) as adjunctive therapy. Functional connectivity derived from EEG was analyzed based on the synchronization likelihood (SL). The analysis also included reconstructing graph-theoretic measures from the synchronization matrix. Comparison of functional connectivity data between each pathological group with the control group was carried out using a nonparametric permutation test applied to SL values between pairs of electrodes...

Abstract Cannabidiol (CBD) is suggested to possess cardioprotective properties. We examined the influence of chronic (10 mg/kg once daily for 2 weeks) CBD administration on heart structure (e.g. cardiomyocyte width) and function (e.g. stimulatory and inhibitory responses induced by β-adrenoceptor (isoprenaline) and muscarinic receptor (carbachol) activation, respectively). Experiments were performed on hearts and/or left atria isolated from spontaneously (SHR) and deoxycorticosterone (DOCA-salt) hypertensive rats; Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) and sham-operated rats (SHAM) served as the respective normotensive controls. CBD diminished the width of cardiomyocytes in left ventricle and reduced the carbachol-induced vasoconstriction of coronary arteries both in DOCA-salt and SHR. However, it failed to affect left...

Abstract Objective Add-on cannabidiol (CBD) reduced seizures associated with Dravet syndrome (DS) in two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials: GWPCARE1 Part B (NCT02091375) and GWPCARE2 (NCT02224703). Patients who completed GWPCARE1 Part A (NCT02091206) or Part B, or GWPCARE2, were enrolled in a long-term open-label extension trial, GWPCARE5 (NCT02224573). We present an interim analysis of the safety, efficacy, and patient-reported outcomes from GWPCARE5. Methods Patients received a pharmaceutical formulation of highly purified CBD in oral solution (100 mg/ml), titrated from 2.5 to 20 mg/kg/day over a 2-week period, added to their existing medications. Based on response and tolerance, CBD could be reduced or increased to 30...

Abstract Myocardial ischemia continues to be the first cause of morbimortality in the world; the definitive treatment is reperfusion; however, this action causes additional damage to ischemic myocardial tissue; this forces to seek therapies of cardioprotection to reduce this additional damage. There are many cardioprotective agents; within these, cannabinoids have shown to have beneficial effects, mainly cannabidiol (CBD). CBD is a non psychoactive cannabinoid. To evaluate the effect in experimental models of CBD in myocardial ischemia reperfusion in rats, twelve-week-old male rats have been used. The animals were divides in 3 groups: control(C), ischemia reperfusion (IR) and CBD pretreatment (1/day/5mg/kg /10days). Langendorff organ isolate...

Abstract Anti-inflammatory and antidiabetogenic properties have been ascribed to cannabidiol (CBD). CBD-based medicinal drugs have been approved for over a lustrum, and a boom in the commercialization of CBD products started in parallel. Herein, we explored the efficacy of CBD in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice to prevent diabetic nephropathy at onset. Eight-to-ten-week-old C57BL6J male mice were treated daily intraperitoneally with 10 mg/kg of CBD or vehicle for 14 days. After 8 days of treatment, mice were challenged with STZ or vehicle (healthy-control). At the end of the study, non-fasting blood glucose (FBG) level was 276 ± 42 mg/dL in vehicle-STZ-treated compared to 147 ±...

Abstract Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder that disturbs feelings and behavior. The symptoms of schizophrenia fall into three categories: positive, negative, and cognitive. Cognitive symptoms are characterized by memory loss or attentional deficits, and are especially difficult to treat. Thus, there is intense research into the development of new treatments for schizophrenia-related responses. One of the possible strategies is connected with cannabidiol (CBD), a cannabinoid compound. This research focuses on the role of CBD in different stages of memory (acquisition, consolidation, retrieval) connected with fear conditioning in the passive avoidance (PA) learning task in mice, as well as in the memory impairment typical...

Abstract Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. Efficacy of treatments for MS is associated with risk of adverse effects, and effective and well-tolerated drugs remain a major unmet need. Cannabis (Cannabis sativa L., fam. Cannabaceae) and cannabinoids are popular among MS patients to treat spasticity and pain. Cannabinoids are endowed with remarkable immunomodulating properties, and in particular the non-psychotropic cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) is increasingly recognized as anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive, nevertheless with excellent tolerability even at high doses. In this systematic review, we retrieved and critically evaluated available evidence regarding the immune and disease-modifying effects of...

Abstract In light of legislative changes and the widespread use of cannabis as a recreational and medicinal drug, delayed effects of cannabis upon brief exposure during embryonic development are of high interest as early pregnancies often go undetected. Here, zebrafish embryos were exposed to cannabidiol (CBD) and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) until the end of gastrulation (1–10 h post-fertilization) and analyzed later in development (4–5 days post-fertilization). In order to measure neural activity, we implemented Calcium-Modulated Photoactivatable Ratiometric Integrator (CaMPARI) and optimized the protocol for a 96-well format complemented by locomotor analysis. Our results revealed that neural activity was decreased by CBD more than THC. At...

Abstract Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a major neurodegenerative disease (ND), presenting a progressive degeneration of the nervous system characterized by a loss of dopamine in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Recent findings have shown that oxidative stress and inflammation play key roles in the development of PD. However, therapies remain uncertain and research for new treatment is of the utmost importance. This review focuses on the potential effects of using cannabidiol (CBD) as a potential therapeutic strategy for the treatment of PD and on some of the presumed mechanisms by which CBD provides its beneficial properties. CBD medication downregulates GSK-3β, the main inhibitor of...

Abstract Objective Here we present a series of patients with WS that were refractory to antiseizure medications and the ketogenic diet and who were treated with cannabidiol-enriched cannabis oil (CBD) as add-on therapy analyzing efficacy, safety, and tolerability. Material and methods Medical records of eight patients with WS treated with CBD at a ratio of cannabidiol:Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (CBD:THC) of 25:1 seen between May 2020 and March 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. In all patients CBD was started as add-on therapy. Results Eight patients (six female and two male) who received CBD for treatment-resistant WS were evaluated. Ages ranged from 16 to 22 months. The etiology was...