Konposatu kannabinoideak terapia gehigarri gisa esklerosi anizkoitzaren tratamendurako: Cannabinoid-based add on therapies for multiple sclerosis treatment

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease that causes demyelination and progressive neuroaxonal damage. MS stands out as a main cause of neurological disability in young adults and is universally more prevalent in women than in men. Patients with MS present a wide variety of disabling symptoms and report lower health-related quality of life as compared to other chronic disease populations. Despite recent advances, current therapies attenuate inflammatory relapses but do not effectively prevent the disease progression. Cannabinoid compounds present in Cannabis sativaprovide therapeutic effects in preclinical MS and have been clinically explored for decades as a potential treatment optionalongside existing therapies. This literature review aims at deciphering whether the use of cannabinoid compounds as an adjunctive treatment provides therapeutic benefits in MS patients. We selected from the PubMed database double-blinded clinical trials conducted between 2010-2022 that included adult MS patients, being most of them women, and compared the use of cannabinoid-based therapies as co-treatment with the use of clinically used pharmacotherapies alone. A total number of 12 clinical trials using different combinations of the cannabinoids Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) were selected. Results suggest co-therapy with cannabinoids elicits positive effects on the patients’ quality of life and slight improvements in different symptoms, highlighting a clear benefit on spasticity. Even so, additional clinical trials with stricter inclusion criteria aimed at analysing different cannabinoid formulations on high and low prevalent symptoms are needed in order to better define the potential benefits of cannabinoid therapies in this complex disease.