The bright side of psychoactive substances: cannabinoid-based drugs in motor diseases

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Psychoactive substances are associated with the idea of drugs with high addictive liability, affecting mental states, cognition, emotion and motor behavior. However these substances can modify synaptic transmission and help to disclose some mechanisms underlying alterations in brain processing and pathophysiology of motor disease. Hence, the ‘bright side’ of e cannabinoid-based drugs must be thoroughly examined to be identified within the latter framework.

Areas covered: We will analyze the preclinical and clinical evidence of cannabinoid-based drugs, discussing their therapeutic value in basal ganglia motor disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Huntington disease.

Expert commentary: Despite the knowledge acquired in the last years, the therapeutic potential of cannabinoid-based drugs should be further tested by novel routes of investigation. This should be focused on the role of cannabinoid signaling system in mitochondrial function as well as on the physical and functional interaction with other key receptorial targets belonging to this network.

KEYWORDS:

• Parkinson’s disease
• Huntington disease
• endocannabinoid system
• motor diseases
• cannabinoid-based drugs
• neuroprotection

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca PRIN 2010 CODE 2010BN3MXM_004; PRIN 2009 CODE 2009ESX7T3_004 to T Bisogno and FIRB-Merit (RBNE08HWLZ-006) to T Bisogno.