Cannabis and Inflammatory Mediators

Abstract

Introduction: Although the recreational cannabis use is expressive worldwide, the literature about medical potential of cannabis extracts, including its anti-inflammatory properties, remains inconclusive.

Methods: We screened all articles, published on the PubMed database, on inflammatory mediators and any information about cannabis use from 1980 to March 2019.

Results: Six studies were included, and the main findings were as follows: (i) among healthy volunteers and cannabis users, cannabinoids seemed to decrease the inflammatory response, thus decreasing the immune response, which led to a higher risk of infections; (ii) among patients with multiple sclerosis, cannabinoids seemed to have little impact on the inflammatory markers' levels.

Discussion: Although cannabis use can produce immune inflammatory suppression in healthy people, this effect is not robust enough to change inflammatory mediators' levels in situations of highly dysfunctional inflammatory activation. Nevertheless, the impact of cannabinoids in clinical outcomes of these conditions remains to be determined.

Keywords: Cannabinoids; Cannabis; Inflammation; Inflammatory mediators.