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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Biol Psychiatry. 2015 Nov 3;79(7):586–594. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.09.014

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Biological processes affected by cannabinoid exposure. (A) The active compounds of cannabis target cannabinoid receptors (CB1R and CB2R; expression pattern in the body is indicated by green dots in the human figure). (B) Cannabinoid receptors are trans-membrane receptors of the G protein-coupled family. The CB1R (shown in red), the primary target of THC, is expressed most abundantly in the brain, but also in the lungs, liver, kidneys, immune system, gut, and in germ cells such as the sperm. The CB2R is present mainly in the immune system and in hematopoietic cells with low expression in brain. Cannabinoid receptors can be activated by endocannabinoids (eCBs, green polygons; retrograde signaling), THC, or synthetic cannabinoids (see also Table 1). In the adult brain, activation of the CB1R on the surface of pre-synaptic neurons modulates the release of neurotransmitters (orange dots) that bind to their specific receptors (light blue shapes) in the post-synaptic cell, thereby changing the communication between neurons.