Editorial: Therapeutic potential of the cannabinoid CB2 receptor

Abstract

Editorial on the Research Topic Therapeutic potential of the cannabinoid CB2 receptorThe cannabinoid receptor type 2 (CB2R) has emerged as a promising therapeutic target for treating various pathologies. Under normal conditions, CB2R is primarily expressed in the immune system, but there is emerging evidence that various states of disease can lead to robust induction of this receptor. This suggests that CB2R is a viable therapeutic target and for this reason, molecules interacting with CB2R have been tested as potential treatments in a wide array of chronic conditions, including cardiovascular and gastrointestinal/inflammatory bowel disease; liver, kidney, lung, neuro-degenerative and psychiatric disorders; reproductive system and skin pathologies; inflammation; pain; cancer; and osteoporosis (Whiting et al., 2022). Through the years, researchers have designed and synthesized novel ligands targeting CB2R with a preference to be highly selective over the cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1R) to avoid undesirable CB1dependent psychotropic effects. However, the clinical results using these CB2R ligands have been largely ineffective (Morales et al., 2016;An et al., 2020).Greater knowledge of ligand-target binding kinetics, CB2R biased signaling and allosterism, and additional structures of antagonist-and agonist bound CB2R will likely enable more selective drug design (Soethoudt et al., 2017). This will bring new hope for the therapeutic potential of CB2R and a better understanding of the endocannabinoid system (ECS).This Research Topic provides more insight into our current understanding of the CB2R field and its therapeutic potential and highlights new findings.Four comprehensive reviews cover diverse aspects of the therapeutic potential of CB2R. Hashiesh et al. provide a full overview of the pharmacological properties, molecular

Re-evaluation of the cardioprotective effects of cannabinoids against ischemia-reperfusion injury according to the IMproving Preclinical Assessment of Cardioprotective Therapies (IMPACT) criteria

“…As shown in Figure 1 , activation of CB 1 Rs leads to deleterious consequences resulting from enhancement in oxidative stress, immune cell migration, inflammation, proliferation and fibrosis. On the other hand, CB 2 receptor activation mainly has a beneficial effect by an influence opposite in direction to that of the CB 1 Rs ( Pacher et al, 2018 ; Smoum et al, 2022 ). However, despite previously observed cardioprotective effects mediated mainly via CB 2 receptor activation [for review, see ( Lamontagne et al, 2006 ; Pacher and Haskó, 2008 ; Steffens and Pacher, 2012 ; Maslov et al, 2016 ; Tang et al, 2021 ; Rorabaugh et al, 2023 ; More et al, 2024 )] the number of studies reporting cardioprotective effects of cannabinoids in different cardiac disorders seems to decline.…”

Rational Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation of Fluorescent CB2 Receptor Ligands for Live-Cell Imaging: A Comprehensive Review

“…The therapeutic potential of CB 2 and its role in various pathologies have been extensively reviewed [ 17 , 21 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 ]. Our focus here is to review the imaging probes that were developed to study CB 2 expression and function, as well as to highlight challenges and opportunities to guide future improvements.…”