Vlachou S, Panagis G
University of Crete, School of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, 74100 Rethymnon, Crete, Greece.
Curr Pharm Des. 2014;20(13):2072-88. doi: 10.2174/13816128113199990433.
The endocannabinoid system has been implicated in the regulation of a variety of physiological processes, including a crucial involvement in brain reward systems and the regulation of motivational processes. Behavioral studies have shown that cannabinoid reward may involve the same brain circuits and similar brain mechanisms with other drugs of abuse, such as nicotine, cocaine, alcohol and heroin, as well as natural rewards, such as food, water and sucrose, although the conditions under which cannabinoids exert their rewarding effects may be more limited. The purpose of the present review is to briefly describe and evaluate the behavioral and pharmacological research concerning the major components of the endocannabinoid system and reward processes. Special emphasis is placed on data received from four procedures used to test the effects of the endocannabinoid system on brain reward in animals; namely, the intracranial self-stimulation paradigm, the self-administration procedure, the conditioned place preference procedure and the drug-discrimination procedure. The effects of cannabinoid 1 (CB1) and cannabinoid 2 (CB2) receptor agonists, antagonists and endocannabinoid modulators in these procedures are examined. Further, the involvement of CB1 and CB2 receptors, as well the fatty acid amid hydrolase (FAAH) enzyme in reward processes is investigated through presentation of respective genetic ablation studies in mice. We suggest that the endocannabinoid system plays a major role in modulating motivation and reward processes. Further research will provide us with a better understanding of these processes and, thus, could lead to the development of potential therapeutic compounds for the treatment of reward-related disorders.
内源性大麻素系统已被证明参与多种生理过程的调节，包括在大脑奖赏系统中的关键作用以及动机过程的调节。行为学研究表明，大麻素奖赏可能涉及与其他成瘾药物（如尼古丁、可卡因、酒精和海洛因）以及自然奖赏（如食物、水和蔗糖）相同的脑回路和相似的脑机制，尽管大麻素发挥奖赏作用的条件可能更为有限。本综述的目的是简要描述和评估有关内源性大麻素系统主要成分与奖赏过程的行为学和药理学研究。特别强调从用于测试内源性大麻素系统对动物脑奖赏作用的四种实验方法中获得的数据；即颅内自我刺激范式、自我给药实验、条件性位置偏爱实验和药物辨别实验。研究了大麻素1（CB1）和大麻素2（CB2）受体激动剂、拮抗剂以及内源性大麻素调节剂在这些实验中的作用。此外，通过展示小鼠相应的基因敲除研究，探究了CB1和CB2受体以及脂肪酸酰胺水解酶（FAAH）在奖赏过程中的作用。我们认为，内源性大麻素系统在调节动机和奖赏过程中起主要作用。进一步的研究将使我们更好地理解这些过程，从而可能开发出用于治疗奖赏相关疾病的潜在治疗化合物。
