Endocannabinoid System and Neurodegenerative Disorders

Dear Colleagues, 

Over the years, there have been remarkable advancements in our understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of neurodegeneration. However, despite tremendous progresses in the field, the translation of promising disease models and treatment options to the clinic of neurodegenerative disorders has thus far been modest, calling into question the difficulty of modeling normal and pathological processes occurring with aging. There is still a paucity of available treatments for neurodegeneration and most of them provide only symptomatic relief, far from being curative or disease-modifying drugs.

The last decades have also witnessed increasing knowledge of the endocannabinoid system and its potential implications for health and disease. Compounds exerting agonist or antagonist properties at cannabinoid receptors have shown a wide range of actions, from accelerating pathological processes to being therapeutic and possibly halting disease progression. Thus, it is plausible that both exogenous cannabinoids (e.g., plant-derived cannabinoids Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, Δ9-THC, and cannabidiol, CBD) and their endogenous counterparts (e.g., endocannabinoids anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol, 2-AG) as well as naturally occurring N-acylethanolamines may directly or indirectly interact with the endocannabinoid system, modulating human brain function and behavior in different ways, with different risk–benefit profiles for neuropsychiatric aging-associated disorders.

Under this perspective, it is imperative to study the effects that targeting the endocannabinoid system may have for the pathogenesis of common neurodegenerative processes, including, but not limited to, oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and glutamatergic imbalance. Preclinical and clinical studies investigating the endocannabinoid system in the etiology, brain processes and multifaceted behavioral phenotypes associated with neurodegenerative disorders are solicited for this Special Issue. Reviews providing an analytical perspective of the existing literature on the “Endocannabinoid System and Neurodegenerative Disorders” are also welcome.

Dr. Marco Colizzi
Dr. Gennaro Pagano
Guest Editors

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• neurodegeneration
• neuropsychopharmacology
• brain imaging
• Parkinson
• PET