Endocannabinoid signaling in cancer: A rather complex puzzle

摘要

Endocannabinoids (eCBs) are signaling lipids with manifold actions in the central nervous system and in the periphery, therefore their dysregulation has a significant impact on human health and disease. Research efforts have clearly documented that these compounds target key events affecting all the hallmarks of cancer, and the implications of eCB-binding cannabinoid receptors (CBx and CB2) for cancer pathogenesis and for antitumor drug development have recently been reviewed [1]. Here, I would like to supplement that accumulated in vitro evidence also demonstrates a major role for vanilloid receptor 1 (transient receptor potential vanilloid subfamily member-1, or TRPV1) in the control by eCBs of cell proliferation, differentiation, and death of many cell types, both primary and immortalized (see [2] for a review). In line with this, recent in vivo data have shown that neural precursor cells induce death of high-grade mouse astrocytomas (one of the most aggressive forms of brain tumors), as well as of primary human glioblastomas, through stimulation of TRPV1 [3].