The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a widespread intercellular signaling system that plays a critical role in energy homeostasis, meant as the precise matching of caloric intake with energy expenditure which normally keeps body weight stable over time. Complex interactions between environmental and neurohormonal systems directly contribute to the balance of energy homeostasis. This review highlights established and more recent data on the brain circuits in which the ECS plays an important regulatory role, with focus on the hypothalamus, a region where numerous interacting systems regulating feeding, satiety, stress, and other motivational states coexist. Although not meant as an exhaustive review of the field, this...

Hypothalamic pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons promote satiety. Cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1R) is critical for the central regulation of food intake. Here we test whether CB1R-controlled feeding in sated mice is paralleled by decreased activity of POMC neurons. We show that chemical promotion of CB1R activity increases feeding, and notably, CB1R activation also promotes neuronal activity of POMC cells. This paradoxical increase in POMC activity was crucial for CB1R-induced feeding, because designer-receptors-exclusively-activated-by-designer-drugs (DREADD)-mediated inhibition of POMC neurons diminishes, whereas DREADD-mediated activation of POMC neurons enhances CB1R-driven feeding. The Pomc gene encodes both the anorexigenic peptide α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, and the opioid peptide β-endorphin. CB1R activation selectively increases...

Over the last decades, the scientific interest in chemistry and pharmacology of cannabinoids has increased. Most attention has focused on Δ9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9 -THC) as it is the psychoactive constituent of Cannabis sativa (C. sativa). However, in previous years, the focus of interest in the second plant constituent with non-psychotropic properties, cannabidiol (CBD) has been enhanced. Recently, several groups have investigated the pharmacological properties of CBD with significant findings; furthermore, this compound has raised promising pharmacological properties as a wake-inducing drug. In the current review, we will provide experimental evidence regarding the potential role of CBD as a wake-inducing drug.

A few years ago the endocannabinoid system has been recognized as a major neuromodulatory system whose main functions are to exert and maintain the body homeostasis. Several different endocannabinoids are synthesized in a broad class of cell types, including those in the brain and the immune system; they bind to cannabinoid G-protein-coupled receptors, having profound effects on a variety of behavioral, neuroendocrine and autonomic functions. The coordinated neural, immune, behavioral and endocrine responses to inflammation are orchestrated to provide an important defense against infections and help homeostasis restoration in the body. These responses are executed and controlled mainly by the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis. Also,...