ISSUP Italy would like to invite you to their upcoming Webinar on how early exposure to cannabis can misshape the brain and exert long-lived effects.
These are momentous years for cannabis and cannabinoids: acceptance of their use for both recreational and self-medicating purposes is growing worldwide, resulting in popularity among vulnerable populations such as adolescents and pregnant women. Neurodevelopmental epochs are extremely sensitive to early exposure to drugs of abuse, and cannabinoids especially interfere with key neurodevelopmental processes, producing durable consequences in the brain. The research group of Prof. Carla Cannizzaro at the University of Palermo, Italy, employs a translational model of in-utero exposure to ∆-9THC, the psychoactive element in cannabis preparations, and has recently highlighted behavioural deficits in cognitive and affective domains, and increased vulnerability to alcohol abuse in adolescent offspring. The behavioural deficits are associated with abnormal modulation of the excitatory neurotransmission in multiple brain regions, which involve alterations of neuropeptidergic systems. In this webinar, Prof. Cannizzaro and her collaborator, Dr. Anna Brancato, will illustrate updated evidence on the consequences of developmental exposure to cannabinoids, and present data supporting possible rescue strategies.
Presenters:
Prof. Carla Cannizzaro, MD, Department of Biomedicine, Neuroscience and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo.
Anna Brancato, PhD, Department of Health Promotion, Mother and Child Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties of Excellence “G. D’Alessandro”, University of Palermo.