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The Double-Edged Sword: Are Endocannabinoids Doing More Harm than Good in Epilepsy?

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The brain ’ s endocannabinoid system is a powerful controller of neurotransmitter release, shaping synaptic communication under physiological and pathological conditions. However, our understanding of endocannabinoid signaling in vivo is… Click to show full abstract

The brain ’ s endocannabinoid system is a powerful controller of neurotransmitter release, shaping synaptic communication under physiological and pathological conditions. However, our understanding of endocannabinoid signaling in vivo is limited by the inability to measure their changes at timescales commensurate with the high lability of lipid signals, leaving fundamental questions of whether, how, and which endocannabinoids fl uctuate with neural activity unresolved. Using novel imaging ap-proaches in awake behaving mice, we now demonstrate that the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol, not anandamide, is dynamically coupled to hippocampal neural activity with high spatiotemporal speci fi city. Furthermore, we show that seizures amplify the physiological endocannabinoid increase by orders of magnitude and drive the downstream synthesis of vasoactive prostaglandins that culminate in a prolonged stroke-like event. These results shed new light on normal and pathological endocannabinoid signaling in vivo.

Keywords: edged sword; epilepsy; harm good; double edged; sword endocannabinoids; endocannabinoids harm

Journal Title: Epilepsy Currents
Year Published: 2022

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