Early Stage Researcher 10 – Christiana Dumbraveanu

Individual Research Project 10
Project Title: Assessment of medical marijuana bioactive substances in a mouse model of neuropathic pain
Supervisor: Dipl.-Ing. A. Neumann (Bionorica)
Co-supervisor(s): Prof. M. Kress (MUI) and Prof. F. Turkheimer (KCL)

Although pharmacological targeting of peripherally expressed cannabinoid CB1 receptors has pronounced analgesic effects and CB2 receptor activation suppresses neuroinflammation in the CNS, the use of medical marijuana is still limited mainly because, apart from tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), its active components have not been studied in sufficient detail. This project will evaluate the bioavailability of medical marijuana bioactive substances (MMBS) of cannabis sativa plant extracts in peripheral blood, DRG, spinal cord and brain.

ESR 10 will:

1. Characterise the analgesic action of MMBS preparations with and without THC and CBD in the spared nerve injured (SNI) mouse model for neuropathic pain;
2. Isolate blood, DRG, peripheral nerve, spinal cord and brain of MMBS treated versus non-treated neuropathic mice measure cytokine profiles in these tissues (ELISA), and perform microglia and macrophage analysis in DRG, spinal cord and brain sections (IHC and FACS);
3. Assess bioavailability of MMBS (LS-MS) in the aforementioned tissues and correlate with analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects.

Definition of MMBS effects on functional and inflammatory signatures associated with experimental neuropathic pain.

Secondment(s): KCL (4 months). Flow cytometry analysis of macrophages and microglia.