Endocannabinoids and related compounds: walking back and forth between plant natural products and animal physiology.
Cannabis sativa has been known, used, and misused by mankind for centuries, and yet only over the last two decades has research stemming from the chemical constituents specific to this plant, the cannabinoids, started to provide fundamental insights into animal physiology and pathology, resulting in the development of new therapeutics. The discovery of the endocannabinoid system, and its targeting with two new pharmaceutical preparations now on the market in several countries, represent the most recent example of how studies on medicinal plants and on the mechanism of their biological effects can reveal, through a chain of breakthroughs, new systems of endogenous signals and physiological phenomena that can become the source of novel strategies for unmet therapeutic challenges.
Di Marzo
Vincenzo
V
Endocannabinoid Research Group, Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via Campi Flegrei 34, 80078 Pozzuoli (NA), Italy. vdimarzo@icmib.na.cnr.it
Bisogno
Tiziana
T
De Petrocellis
Luciano
L
D000577:Amides / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001688:Biological Products / Q000494:pharmacology*; D063385:Cannabinoid Receptor Modulators / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D063388:Endocannabinoids; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism
D000577:Amides; D001688:Biological Products; D063385:Cannabinoid Receptor Modulators; D063388:Endocannabinoids; D005227:Fatty Acids