THC Gives Cancer Cells the Munchies Too

“…THC and other cannabinoids are actively being investigated for various useful clinical purposes, including the treatment of cancer through the inhibition of tumor growth.

A new study by Salazar et al. in The Journal of Clinical Investigation demonstrates that THC causes tumor cells to begin to degrade themselves from the inside (a process called autophagy, i.e. “self-eating”). Although autophagy has been shown to promote cell survival in some cases and cell death in others, the authors show that in this case it causes cancer cells to undergo programmed cell death (apoptosis). Thus, THC activates a series of events within cancer cells, inhibiting tumor growth.”

More: http://scienceblogs.com/scientificactivist/2009/04/02/thc-gives-cancer-cells-the-mun/

“Cannabinoid action induces autophagy-mediated cell death through stimulation of ER stress in human glioma cells” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2673842/

No Association Between Frequency of Marijuana Use and Health or Healthcare Utilization

“Researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found frequency of marijuana use was not significantly associated with health services utilization or health status. These findings currently appear online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

As marijuana’s legal status changes across the US, its impact on health has become of great interest. Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug, yet its impact on health and healthcare utilization has not been studied extensively.

The researchers studied 589 adults who screened positive for drug use at a primary care visit. Those patients were asked about their drug use, their emergency room use and hospitalizations, and their overall health status. In addition, information about other medical diagnoses was obtained from their medical records. They found the vast majority of the study sample (84 percent) used marijuana, 25 percent used cocaine, 23 percent opioids and eight percent used other drugs; 58 percent reported using marijuana but no other drugs. They also found no differences between daily marijuana users and those using no marijuana in their use of the emergency room, in hospitalizations, medical diagnoses or their health status.

According to the researchers it is common for users of illicit drugs to use both marijuana and another drug; therefore, knowing the incremental effects of marijuana on health in that circumstance is important.

“Even though we could not compare marijuana users to those who used no drugs at all, our findings suggest that marijuana use has little measurable effect on self-reported health or healthcare utilization in adults using drugs identified in a primary care clinic,” said lead author Daniel Fuster, MD, a postdoctoral scholar from the Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit at BMC and BUSM.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130923143638.htm

“No Detectable Association Between Frequency of Marijuana Use and Health or Healthcare Utilization Among Primary Care Patients Who Screen Positive for Drug Use.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24048656

 “Cannabis Consumption Has No Negative Effect on Health, According to New Study” https://thejointblog.com/cannabis-consumption-negative-effect-health-according-new-study/

No Detectable Association Between Frequency of Marijuana Use and Health or Healthcare Utilization Among Primary Care Patients Who Screen Positive for Drug Use.

“To assess the cross-sectional association between frequency of marijuana use and healthcare utilization (emergency department and hospitalization) and health (comorbidity, health status), we studied patients in an urban primary care clinic who reported any recent (past 3-month) drug use (marijuana, opioids, cocaine, others) on screening…

Frequency of marijuana use was not significantly associated with emergency department use…

CONCLUSIONS:

Among adults in primary care who screen positive for any recent illicit or non-medical prescription drug use, we were unable to detect an association between frequency of marijuana use and health, emergency department use, or hospital utilization.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24048656

The oral administration of trans-caryophyllene attenuates acute and chronic pain in mice.

“Trans-caryophyllene is a sesquiterpene present in many medicinal plants’ essential oils, such as Ocimum gratissimum and Cannabis sativa. In this study, we evaluated the antinociceptive activity of trans-caryophyllene in murine models of acute and chronic pain and the involvement of trans-caryophyllene in the opioid and endocannabinoid systems…

 These results demonstrate that trans-caryophyllene reduced both acute and chronic pain in mice, which may be mediated through the opioid and endocannabinoid systems.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24055516

Cannabinoid modulation of prefrontal-limbic activation during fear extinction learning and recall in humans.

“Pre-extinction administration of Δ9-tetrahydrocannibinol (THC) facilitates recall of extinction in healthy humans, and evidence from animal studies suggest that this likely involves via enhancement of the cannabinoid system within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and hippocampus (HIPP), brain structures critical to fear extinction…

 This study provides the first evidence that pre-extinction administration of THC modulates prefrontal-limbic circuits during fear extinction in humans and prompts future investigation to test if cannabinoid agonists can rescue or correct the impaired behavioral and neural function during extinction recall in patients with PTSD.

 Ultimately, the cannabinoid system may serve as a promising target for innovative intervention strategies (e.g. pharmacological enhancement of exposure-based therapy) in PTSD and other fear learning-related disorders.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24055595

Cannabinoid facilitation of fear extinction memory recall in humans.

“Animal studies have shown that activation of the cannabinoid system during extinction learning enhances fear extinction and its retention. Specifically, CB1 receptor agonists, such as Δ9-tetrahydrocannibinol (THC), can facilitate extinction recall by preventing recovery of extinguished fear…

 We conducted a study using a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subjects design, coupling a standard Pavlovian fear extinction paradigm and simultaneous skin conductance response (SCR) recording with an acute pharmacological challenge with oral dronabinol (synthetic THC) or placebo (PBO) 2 h prior to extinction learning in 29 healthy adult volunteers (THC = 14; PBO = 15) and tested extinction retention 24 h after extinction learning.

Compared to subjects that received PBO, subjects that received THC showed low SCR to a previously extinguished CS when extinction memory recall was tested 24 h after extinction learning, suggesting that THC prevented the recovery of fear.

These results provide the first evidence that pharmacological enhancement of extinction learning is feasible in humans using cannabinoid system modulators, which may thus warrant further development and clinical testing. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled ‘Cognitive Enhancers’.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22796109

Cannabinoid Receptor 2 Activation: A Means to Prevent Monocyte-Endothelium Engagement.

“This Commenatry highlights the article by Rom et al which shows that selective cannabinoid receptor 2 activation in leukocytes decreases key steps in monocyte-blood brain barrier engagement suppressing inflammatory leukocyte responses and preventing neuroinflammation.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24055258

Selective Activation of Cannabinoid Receptor 2 in Leukocytes Suppresses Their Engagement of the Brain Endothelium and Protects the Blood-Brain Barrier.

“Cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) is highly expressed in immune cells and stimulation decreases inflammatory responses. We tested the idea that selective CB2 activation in human monocytes suppresses their ability to engage the brain endothelium and migrate across the blood-brain barrier (BBB), preventing consequent injury…

These results indicate that selective CB2 activation in leukocytes decreases key steps in monocyte-BBB engagement, thus suppressing inflammatory leukocyte responses and preventing neuroinflammation.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24055259

The role of androgen receptor in transcriptional modulation of cannabinoid receptor type 1 gene in rat trigeminal ganglia.

“We have previously shown that anti-hyperalgesic effects of cannabinoid agonists under inflammatory condition are much greater in male than female, and that inflammatory cytokines upregulate cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1) expression in male, but not female, trigeminal ganglia (TG) in a testosterone-dependent manner. In this study, we investigated the mechanisms underlying the testosterone-mediated regulation of peripheral CB1 expression…

These experiments provided compelling evidence that testosterone regulates CB1 gene transcription in TG through AR following cytokine stimulation.

These results should provide mechanistic bases for understanding cytokine-hormone-neuron interactions in peripheral cannabinoid systems, and have important clinical implications for pain patients in whom testosterone level is naturally low, gradually declining or pharmacologically compromised.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24055403

Bladder function in a cannabinoid receptor type 1 knock-out mouse.

“OBJECTIVE: To evaluate bladder function in an established cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptor knock-out mouse model via organ bath (in vitro) and urodynamic (cystometric; in vivo) experiments.

CONCLUSIONS: In vitro, bladder strips from CB1 KO mice responded to muscarinic receptor stimulation similar to WT controls, but were less responsive to electrical stimulation of nerves. In vivo, CB1 KO mice had a higher micturition frequency and more spontaneous activity than WT animals.

The present findings suggest that CB1 receptors are involved in peripheral and central nervous control of micturition.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24053792

“Cannabinoid receptor 1 also plays a role in healthy bladder.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24053739