Cannabinoid control of Multiple Sclerosis
Prof. David Baker (david.baker@qmul.ac.uk)
Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London
Wednesday 16th March, 2011. 18:00 – 19:30. Darwin Lecture Theatre 2, UKC.
Multiple sclerosis is the major cause of non-traumatic neurological disability in young adults and can affect up to 1:500 people in certain areas of the United Kingdom. Autoimmune disease induces conduction block, demyelination, axonal, neuronal and synapse loss that serves to impair normal neurotransmission. This results in the development of a variety of neurological symptoms, including spasticity (muscle stiffness), which are poorly controlled. This has prompted some people to use and perceive benefit from taking cannabis. Through investigating experimental models of multiple sclerosis, we have demonstrated how and why cannabinoid compounds may be involved in symptom control and regulation of other disease processes during multiple sclerosis. This has underpinned subsequent clinical studies that have lead to the recent licensing of medicinal cannabis extracts for symptom control in spasticity. Through exploring cannabinoid biology, we have identified ways to exploit the therapeutic potential of the cannabinoid system, whilst limiting the psychedelic side-effects associated with cannabis use.
Alex Stevens is Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Kent. He has worked on issues of drugs, crime and health in the voluntary sector, as an academic researcher and as an adviser to the UK government. Professor Stevens has recently published a book on Drugs Crime and Public Health: The Political Economy of Drug Policy (Routledge, 2011)and his analysis of racial disparities in arrest rates for drug offenses received some media coverage http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/oct/31/race-bias-drug-arrests-claim.
The presentation will describe the different mixtures of penal, public health and other measures to limit the harms associated with the use of illicit drugs. It will draw some lessons from these various attempts, with a specific focus on drug policy and its outcomes in the USA, Sweden, the Netherlands, Portugal and England & Wales.
Wednesday 8th December, 18:00. Darwin Lecture Theatre 2, University of Kent.
A licenced psilocybin study has been gathering data in the UK. IV psilocybin is given to male participants and fMRI scans are completed. Robin (a neuropsychopharmacologist) will be presenting the results of this study, and discussing which areas of the brain are activated or inhibited under the influence of psilocybin.
This talk will descrive the history and progress of a functional magnetic resonance imaging… (fMRI) project investigating the effects of IV psilocybin on brain activation and blood flow. It will describe how the project began, its present status, what researchers are investigating, what they expect to find and what they have found so far. The project is part of a broader initiative to test and develop the validity of abstract constructs of relevance to the psychedelic state (e.g. the ego, the unconscious mind, primary process thinkng and the mystical experience).
Psilocybin is the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, and is closely related to DMT. Interestingly, IV psilocybin has a much shorter duration (around 30 minutes) and can be extremely intense.
This should be an extremely interesting talk, and I strongly recommend coming. There is still so much to learn in the field of neuroscience, and it is of massive importance to study the effects on brain activity of agents such as psilocybin that can so palpably change the acute experience of human life.
What do the doors of perception look like through a magnetic resonance scan?
Wednesday 1st December, 18:00. Darwin Lecture Theatre 2, University of Kent.
