Explorando o potencial terapêutico da cannabis na gestão de doenças inflamatórias periféricas: uma revisão de literatura

Abstract

Cannabis has a great therapeutic potential to be investigated in the treatment of inflammatory peripheral diseases. Cannabis sativa is a plant with approximately 500 natural chemical substances, such as cannabinoids, which have been used for millennia to combat illnesses. Inflammation is a natural occurrence of the immune system, but chronic inflammation can harm tissues and result in diseases. Peripheral neuropathic diseases cause pain, sleepiness, numbness, tingling, and weakness. They are commonly treated with analgesics, antidepressants, and anticonvulsants, however, these therapies are not effective for everyone and might cause important side effects. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) plays an important role in regulating peripheral inflammatory responses, modulating immune activity, influencing the activity of inflammatory mediators, protecting tissues against damage, and controlling associated pain. The main cannabinoids, Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), have analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective properties, which advocate for their use in the treatment of peripheral neuropathies. This literature review covers research papers published from 2019 to 2023 that investigated the effectiveness of Cannabis in inflammatory peripheral diseases. The results showed that Cannabis sativa has anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. It also highlighted that active compounds, such as Δ9-THC and CBD, present therapeutic effects, given their capacity to bind to Cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) and type 2 (CB2) receptors in the ECS; Δ9-THC is an agonist of both receptors, having greater affinity to CB1, while CBD acts as an inverse agonist by binding but not activating the receptors. These results have increased the interest of the scientific and medical community due to the deeper understanding of the mechanisms through which the active compounds of Cannabis act on the ECS in response to these inflammatory processes, stressing plants of the Cannabis genus as promising alternatives for the treatment of peripheral inflammatory diseases.