Cannabinoid molecules can calm your own body during stress.

Summary: Your brain may release its own cannabinoid molecules in response to stress to help you relax, activating the same brain receptors as THC derived from cannabis plants. But it was not well understood how these cannabinoid molecules affected brain activity.

Source: Northwestern University

Your brain may release its own cannabinoid molecules in response to stress to help you relax, activating the same brain receptors as THC derived from cannabis plants. But it was not well understood how these cannabinoid molecules affected brain activity.

A recent mouse study from Northwestern Medicine has shown that the amygdala, a crucial emotional brain region, releases endogenous (body-produced) cannabinoid molecules under stress, which reduces the intensity of the incoming stress signal from the hippocampus, the brain’s memory and emotional region.

These findings lend more credence to the idea that the body produces these endogenous cannabinoid molecules as a stress-reduction mechanism.

Stress exposure increases the risk of psychiatric disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder, and major depressive disorder developing or getting worse.

“Understanding how the brain adapts to stress at the molecular, cellular, and circuit level could provide critical insight into how stress is translated into mood disorders and may reveal novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of stress-related disorders,” said corresponding study author Dr. Sachi Patel, a psychiatrist at Northwestern Medicine and the chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

In order to demonstrate that particular high-frequency patterns of amygdala activity can produce these molecules, Northwestern researchers used a novel protein sensor that can spot the presence of these cannabinoid molecules at specific brain synapses in real time. Additionally, the sensor demonstrated that these molecules were released by mice under various forms of stress.

The mice’s ability to handle stress and motivational deficits was affected when scientists removed the cannabinoid receptor type 1 that these cannabinoids target.

Mice adopted more passive and immobile responses to stress and had a lower preference for drinking sweetened sucrose water after stress exposure when the receptor target of these endogenous cannabinoids at hippocampal-amygdala synapses was eliminated. The latter finding might be connected to anhedonia, or the decrease in pleasure, which is frequently felt by people with stress-related disorders like depression and PTSD.

The endocannabinoid system has been recognized as one of the most important signaling systems that is a top drug-development candidate for stress-related psychiatric disorders.

“Determining whether increasing levels of endogenous cannabinoids can be used as potential therapeutics for stress-related disorders is a next logical step from this study and our previous work,” said Patel, also the Lizzie Gilman Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. “There are ongoing clinical trials in this area that may be able to answer this question in the near future.”