Cannabinoid receptors as therapeutic targets for obesity and metabolic diseases.
One of the most interesting pharmacological targets proposed in the past ten years for fighting obesity and related metabolic disorders is the endocannabinoid system. The role of the endocannabinoid system is crucial in regulating the rewarding properties of food, in controlling energy balance by acting at the hypothalamic circuitries involved in food intake, and in peripheral metabolism by influencing adipocytes, hepatocytes, myocytes and pancreatic endocrine cells. Obesity seems to be a condition associated with a pathological overactivation of the endocannabinoid system; therefore, restoring a normal endocannabinoid tone by antagonizing the cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB(1)) could help arrest both the development and the maintenance of obesity.
Bellocchio
Luigi
L
Endocrinology Unit and CRBA, Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Via Massarenti 9, 40138 Bologna, Italy.
Mancini
Giacomo
G
Vicennati
Valentina
V
Pasquali
Renato
R
Pagotto
Uberto
U
D000818:Animals; D001069:Appetite Regulation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D063387:Cannabinoid Receptor Antagonists; D063385:Cannabinoid Receptor Modulators / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008659:Metabolic Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D009765:Obesity / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D043884:Receptor, Cannabinoid, CB1 / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000502:physiology; D043882:Receptors, Cannabinoid / Q000502:physiology
D063387:Cannabinoid Receptor Antagonists; D063385:Cannabinoid Receptor Modulators; D043884:Receptor, Cannabinoid, CB1; D043882:Receptors, Cannabinoid