English
Marijuana (Cannabis sativa L.) and its derivatives have been used both medicinally and recreationally for at least fifty centuries. However, the chemical structure of their active components – the cannabinoids – was not elucidated until the early 1960s. Pharmacological studies conducted at that time led to the conclusion that, among all the cannabinoids present in the plant, one of them, D9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is especially relevant owing to its high abundance and potency. Three decades later the mechanism of THC action was unravelled. Thus, in the early 1990s it was found that THC affects our body because it is similar to (and therefore mimics the effects of) a family of molecules produced by our organism that were so called endocannabinoids - anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol being their main representatives. THC and endocannabinoids act by engaging specific proteins located on the surface of our cells and called cannabinoid receptors, two of which have been well characterized: CB1 y CB2. Nowadays it is known that those receptors are expressed preferentially in areas of the central nervous system that control processes such as motor activity, memory and learning, pain, appetite, vomiting, emotions and sensorial perception, which obviously explains that these processes are modulated by both the endocannabinoids generated at those locations and the THC that gains access to them owing to marijuana consumption. Cannabinoid receptors are also present at many other sites in our body, for example the peripheral terminals that innervate the skin and the digestive, circulatory and respiratory tracts, as well as in the immune system, the reproductive organs, the eye and the vascular endothelium. All these discoveries have contributed not only to an extraordinary expansion of the basic knowledge on how cannabinoids act in our body, but also to the renaissance of the study of their therapeutic properties, that constitutes a current topic of debate with ample scientific and clinical consequences.
Lines of research
1. Neuroprotection
Mechanisms of cannabinoid neuroprotective action in neurodegenenerative and de-myelinating diseases and acute brain injury. Design of experimental therapies based on endocannabinooid system modulators for those neuropathologies.
2. Cytotoxicity
Mechanisms of cannabinoid cytotoxic action in malignant brain tumours. Design of experimental therapies based on endocannabinooid system modulators for those tumours.
3. Medicinal Chemistry
Design, synthesis and optimization of new compounds with therapeutic potential on the endocannabinooid system.
Other items
Activities: education and outreach