Modulation of Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cell Signaling by Medicinal Cannabinoids.
“Medical marijuana is increasingly prescribed as an analgesic for a growing number of indications, amongst which terminal cancer and multiple sclerosis.
In this study we aimed to investigate the immune-cell modulatory properties of medical cannabis.
Healthy volunteers were asked to ingest medical cannabis, and kinome profiling was used to generate comprehensive descriptions of the cannabis challenge on inflammatory signal transduction in the peripheral blood of these volunteers.
Results were related to both short term and long term effects in patients experimentally treated with a medical marijuana preparation for suffering from abdominal pain as a result of chronic pancreatitis or other causes.
The results reveal an immunosuppressive effect of cannabinoid preparations via deactivation of signaling through the pro-inflammatory p38 MAP kinase and mTOR pathways and a concomitant deactivation of the pro-mitogenic ERK pathway. However, long term cannabis exposure in two patients resulted in reversal of this effect.
While these data provide a powerful mechanistic rationale for the clinical use of medical marijuana in inflammatory and oncological disease, caution may be advised with sustained use of such preparations.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28174520
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnmol.2017.00014/full
Cannabidiol: Swinging the Marijuana Pendulum From ‘Weed’ to Medication to Treat the Opioid Epidemic.

“Epidemics require a paradigm shift in thinking about all possible solutions. The rapidly changing sociopolitical marijuana landscape provides a foundation for the therapeutic development of medicinal cannabidiol to address the current opioid abuse crisis.”
Cannabidiol: Swinging the Marijuana Pendulum From 'Weed' to Medication to Treat the Opioid Epidemic.
“Epidemics require a paradigm shift in thinking about all possible solutions. The rapidly changing sociopolitical marijuana landscape provides a foundation for the therapeutic development of medicinal cannabidiol to address the current opioid abuse crisis.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28162799]]>
Use of medical cannabis to reduce pain and improve quality of life in cancer patients.
“Early attention to pain and symptoms in those with cancer improves both quality of life and survival. Opioid medications are the mainstay treatment of cancer-related pain.
Cannabinoids are increasingly used as adjunctive treatments for cancer pain, but clinical evidence supporting their use as an “opioid sparing agent” or to improve quality of life is as yet unknown. Our study sought to determine if the addition of cannabinoids (medical cannabis) resulted in the reduction of the average opioid dose required for pain control, and improve self-reported quality of life indices.
“This work was conducted to prepare β-caryophyllene-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin inclusion complex (HPβCD/BCP) and investigate its effects and mechanisms on cognitive deficits in vascular dementia (VD) rats.
Overall, the findings demonstrated the protective effects of HPβCD/BCP against cognitive deficits induced by chronic cerebral ischemia and suggested the potential of HPβCD/BCP in the therapy of vascular dementia in the future.”