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My
name is Giovanni Marsicano.
I'm group leader of the
group EndoCannabinoids
and NeuroAdaptation at the
NeuroCentre Magendie in Bordeaux.
And I'm very happy today to present
you some ideas and some recent data
on the role of cannabinoid receptor
type 1 in astrocytes in the brain.
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So first, a little
introduction about
endocannabinoid system
and cannabinoid receptors.
As many people know in the
world, the plant Cannabis sativa,
or marijuana, has profound
effects on the brain, on the body,
and this is been
known by human beings
since many thousands of years.
And actually, this
plant has many records
because it is the first
plant that has been likely
cultivated for reasons independent
from food intake, from eating.
And also, it's been
considered one of the first,
let's say, sacred drugs because
of its psychotropic effects.
However, this long history of a
relationship between the plant
Cannabis sativa and
human beings has not
been clarified from the
scientific point of view
until the middle of the '60s when
the group of Raphael Mechoulam,
in 1964, identified the
compounds present in the plant
and identified about
60 compounds that
are all, more or less,
biologically active.
The most psychoactive
compound of the plant
is the famous delta-9
tetrahydrocannabinoid
or so-called THC.
However, how THC is acting
in the brain and in the body
was still a mystery
for a couple of decades
until the late '80s and
beginning of the '90s when
the first cannabinoid receptor,
called CB1 for cannabinoid receptor
type 1, was identified and
cloned and identified as seven
transmembrane G-protein
coupled receptor.
At this point, as
you can see here, we
have an exogenous ligand, THC,
and an endogenous receptor.
Of course, we miss a
part of the puzzle.
That is, what is physiologically
activating CB1 receptors?
And for this, we just needed
to wait a couple of years,
until 1992, when the same group
of Raphael Mechoulam in Israel
identified the first
endocannabinoid, so
called anandamide.
The name is derived
from the Sanskrit word
"ananda," which means bliss.
So they called it an amide of bliss.
And as you see, both
THC and endocannabinoids
are lipid compounds, which
is also an interesting aspect
of this system, a system
that at this point
we can identify with an endogenous
receptors and endogenous ligands.
And we have a so-called
endocannabinoid system
which is involved, really,
in a plethora of functions.
This is a very limited
list of functions
of the endocannabinoid system
has been implicated in.
There are many more.
