An enquiry to the role of CB1 receptors in neurodegeneration.

Fernández-Moncada I(1), Eraso-Pichot A(2), Dalla Tor T(3), Fortunato-Marsol B(2), Marsicano G(4).

Author information:
(1)Université de Bordeaux, INSERM, Neurocentre Magendie, U1215, F-33000
Bordeaux, France. Electronic address: .
(2)Université de Bordeaux, INSERM, Neurocentre Magendie, U1215, F-33000
Bordeaux, France.
(3)Université de Bordeaux, INSERM, Neurocentre Magendie, U1215, F-33000
Bordeaux, France; Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences,
Section of Pharmacology, University of Catania, Catania 95124, Italy.
(4)Université de Bordeaux, INSERM, Neurocentre Magendie, U1215, F-33000
Bordeaux, France. Electronic address: .

Neurodegenerative disorders are debilitating conditions that impair patient
quality of life and that represent heavy social-economic burdens to society.
Whereas the root of some of these brain illnesses lies in autosomal inheritance,
the origin of most of these neuropathologies is scantly understood. Similarly,
the cellular and molecular substrates explaining the progressive loss of brain
functions remains to be fully described too. Indeed, the study of brain
neurodegeneration has resulted in a complex picture, composed of a myriad of
altered processes that include broken brain bioenergetics, widespread
neuroinflammation and aberrant activity of signaling pathways. In this context,
several lines of research have shown that the endocannabinoid system (ECS) and
its main signaling hub, the type-1 cannabinoid (CB1) receptor are altered in
diverse neurodegenerative disorders. However, some of these data are conflictive
or poorly described. In this review, we summarize the findings about the
alterations in ECS and CB1 receptors signaling in three representative brain
illnesses, the Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases, and we
discuss the relevance of these studies in understanding neurodegeneration
development and progression, with a special focus on astrocyte function.
Noteworthy, the analysis of ECS defects in neurodegeneration warrant much more
studies, as our conceptual understanding of ECS function has evolved quickly in
the last years, which now include glia cells and the subcellular-specific CB1
receptors signaling as critical players of brain functions.

Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.

 

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