The antitumor action of cannabinoids on glioma tumorigenesis

Panagiotis Zogopoulos, Penelope Korkolopoulou, Efstratios Patsouris and Stamatios Theocharis

First Department of Pathology, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Offprint requests to: Panagiotis Zogopoulos, First Department of Pathology, Medical School, University of Athens, 75 Mikras Asias St., Goudi, 11527 Athens, Greece. e-mail: p.zogopoulos@yahoo.com

Summary. Cannabinoids are a class of chemical compounds with a wide spectrum of pharmacological effects, mediated by two specific plasma membrane receptors (CB1 and CB2). Recently, CB1 and CB2 expression levels have been detected in human tumors, including those of brain. Cannabinoids-endo-cannabinoids exert anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, anti-invasive, anti-metastatic and pro-apoptotic effects in different cancer types, both in vitro and in vivo in animal models, after local or systemic administration. We present the available experimental and clinical data, to date, regarding the antitumor action of cannabinoids on the tumorigenesis of gliomas. Histol Histopathol 30, 629-645 (2015)

Key words: Cannabinoids, Glioma, Tumor, CB1, CB2

DOI: 10.14670/HH-30.629