Dermatological aspects of synthetic cannabinoid addiction

Abstract

Given the increased prevalence of SC use in our country and around the world, dermatologists should continue to familiarize themselves with the common mucocutaneous markers of this substance use. Awareness of signs of SCs use will facilitate earlier diagnose, intervention, and directed treatment.

A new role for anandamide: defective link between the systemic and skin endocannabinoid systems in hypertrophic human wound healing

“…Here, it is involved in a large number of biological processes, such as proliferation, growth, differentiation and survival, immunocompetence, tolerance 26 and melanogenesis 27 . It was recently shown that abuse of synthetic cannabinoids can result in dermatologic disorders, such as premature skin ageing, hair loss and greying, or acne 28 , indicating that cannabinoid signalling can influence skin biology.…”

Cannabinoid Signaling in the Skin: Therapeutic Potential of the “C(ut)annabinoid” System

“…The clinical observation that cannabinoid abuse can be accompanied by acne, already highlights how cannabinoid signaling may influence human sebocyte biology [88]. Indeed, expression of CB 1 (in the differentiated, central cells) and CB 2 (predominantly in the basal, non-differentiated sebocytes) receptors in human SGs was first demonstrated by Ständer and her co-workers in 2005 [111].…”

“…Similar to SGs, the biology of HFs is also influenced by cannabinoids. Indeed, as mentioned above, abuse of certain synthetic cannabinoids was shown to result in hair loss and graying [88], and it is well-proven that CB 1 is expressed in human HFs, whereas regarding the expression of CB 2 contradictory findings have been published so far [111,130,131,132,133]. Of great importance, prototypic eCBs (i.e., AEA and 2-AG) were shown to be produced in human HFs, among which 30 μM AEA (but not 2-AG) was proven to inhibit hair growth by inducing premature catagen entry in a CB 1 -dependent manner, but, somewhat surprisingly, it did not influence the pigmentation of HFs.…”

“…It has recently been shown that abuse of synthetic, hyperpotent cannabinoids (e.g., “Bonsai”, “fake weed”, “K2”, and “Jamaica”) can result in dermatological disorders, such as premature skin aging, hair loss and graying, or acne [88], indicating that cannabinoid signaling can profoundly influence skin biology. Indeed, several lines of evidence demonstrate that both endogenous and phytocannabinoids can exert various biological effects in the skin, implicating cannabinoid signaling as a key contributor to cutaneous homeostasis.…”

“…The presence of different eCBs, cannabinoid receptors, as well as other members of the ECS has already been shown on many different cell types of the skin, including, but not limited to epidermal keratinocytes, melanocytes, mast cells, fibroblasts, sebocytes, sweat gland cells, as well as certain cell populations of hair follicles. Since these data have been extensively reviewed in excellent recent papers [88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100,101], besides providing a brief general overview, our current paper intends to focus on areas which have received less attention in said papers, and to highlight the mostly neglected therapeutic potential present in the pharmacological modulation of the “c(ut)annabinoid” signaling. Last, but not least, we intend to discuss the potential limitations and side effects of such medications as well.…”