Epilepsy and endocannabinoids
Russian scientists have learned about the benefits of internal cannabinoids in epilepsy
Scientists from the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and MIPT have shown in their work that analogues of substances contained in cannabis, which are produced by the body itself, help against epilepsy. This was reported on Tuesday by the MIPT press service. The results are published in the journal Brain Research (Shubina et al., Endocannabinoid-dependent protection against kainic acid-induced long-term alteration of brain oscillations in guinea pigs).
"We have shown that the symptoms of epilepsy can significantly weaken or be completely blocked if the experimental animals, together with the substance that causes them, are injected with drugs that activate the activity of the endocannabinoid system of the brain," Valentina Kichigina, head of the laboratory of the system organization of neurons of the ITEB RAS, Doctor of Biological Sciences, quotes a press release.
Epilepsy, hippocampus and cannabinoids
Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurological diseases of a person, manifested in the occurrence of repeated seizures in different parts of the brain. If the focus of epilepsy is in the temporal lobe, such epilepsy is called temporal lobe – that's what scientists have studied.
Currently, there are no reliable ways to treat temporal lobe epilepsy. In severe forms and resistance to treatment, patients are removed from the hippocampus, in which convulsions form. The hippocampus is a part of the brain that is located in the temporal regions, it is responsible for the formation of short–term memory and its translation into long-term, so after removing the hippocampus, the patient can no longer remember new information. Because of this, researchers are constantly looking for ways to protect the hippocampus from the development of epilepsy.
Cannabinoids are substances that are found in cannabis. The animal and human bodies also produce cannabinoids, which are called "endocannabinoids" because they are produced by the body itself. Endocannabinoids support brain homeostasis, modulate the release of excitatory and inhibitory substances of the nervous system. They are also involved in the regulation of the body's immune system.
Experiment
Biologists modeled the development of temporal epilepsy in guinea pigs using a neurotoxin that causes the so-called epileptic status when injected into the animal body, after which they injected substances into the animal brain that stimulated the endocannabinoid system.
It turned out that activation of endocannabinoid production normalizes electrical activity in the brain and reduces the imbalance in the activity of the hippocampus. In addition, endocannabinoids protected the cells of the hippocampus – despite the effect of the neurotoxin, the hippocampus remained virtually intact.
Scientists believe that activation of the endogenous cannabinoid system can help not only with epilepsy, but also in the treatment of brain damage caused by neurotoxins.
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22.03.2017