The highs and lows of cannabinoid receptor expression in disease: mechanisms and their therapeutic implications

Abstract

Alterations in the endogenous cannabinoid system have been described in almost every category of disease. These changes can alternatively be protective or maladaptive, such as producing antinociception in neuropathic pain or fibrogenesis in liver disease, making the system an attractive therapeutic target. However, the challenge remains to selectively target the site of disease while sparing other areas, particularly mood and cognitive centers of the brain. Identifying regional changes in cannabinoid receptor-1 and -2 (CB(1)R and CB(2)R) expression is particularly important when considering endocannabinoid system-based therapies, because regional increases in cannabinoid receptor expression have been shown to increase potency and efficacy of exogenous agonists at sites of disease. Although there have been extensive descriptive studies of cannabinoid receptor expression changes in disease, the underlying mechanisms are only just beginning to unfold. Understanding these mechanisms is important and potentially relevant to therapeutics. In diseases for which cannabinoid receptors are protective, knowledge of the mechanisms of receptor up-regulation could be used to design therapies to regionally increase receptor expression and thus increase efficacy of an agonist. Alternatively, inhibition of harmful cannabinoid up-regulation could be an attractive alternative to global antagonism of the system. Here we review current findings on the mechanisms of cannabinoid receptor regulation in disease and discuss their therapeutic implications.

Fig. 1.

CB₁R and CB₂R gene structures, promoters, and alternative transcripts. Transcripts are depicted below the complete gene structures and are not drawn to scale. Data from Zhang et al. (2004), human CB₁R; McCaw et al. (2004), mouse CB₁R; Matsuda et al. (1990), rat CB₁R; Liu et al. (2009), human, rat, and mouse CB₂R.