“New study suggests that several cannabinoids slow or kill malignant cells.”
“Recent research gives new hope and meaning to the phrase “medical marijuana.”
In a paper published in October’s Anticancer Research, Wai Liu, a senior research fellow at St. George’s University of London, reports that he found six cannabinoids – active components of the cannabis plant – that can slow or outright kill cancer cells.”
More: http://mag.newsweek.com/2013/11/01/cannabis-cure-cancer.html
“A non-psychoactive chemical found in marijuana called cannabidiol (CBD) could offer an effective treatment for brain cancer and is potentially an effective anti-cancer drug in the management of gliomas, without side effects, according to a new study from a team of Investigators in Spain, Italy and Canada.
The results suggest that CBD helps battle brain cancer through a combination of anti-cancer effects at the molecular level.”
More: http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2013/12/05/marijuana-brain-cancer-why-cbd-beats-gliomas/
The anti-cancer properties of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary hallucinogenic component of cannabis, has been recognised for many years, but research into similar cannabis-derived compounds, known as cannabinoids, has been limited.
The study was carried out by a team at St George’s, University of London. It has been published in the journal Anticancer Research.
The team, led by Dr Wai Liu and colleagues carried out laboratory investigations using a number of cannabinoids, either alone or in combination with each other, to measure their anti-cancer actions in relation to leukemia.
Of six cannabinoids studied, each demonstrated anti-cancer properties as effective as those seen in THC. Importantly, they had an increased effect on cancer cells when combined with each other.”
More: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131014094105.htm
“Marijuana has become more widely studied recently for its medicinal properties, but the area is no longer limited to people suffering from pain, nausea, vomiting, anxiety, sleeplessness or disease-induced anorexia. It has now been discovered that breast cancer patients are helped with marijuana through direct anticancer actions that the cannabis species is able to provide.”
More: http://guardianlv.com/2013/12/breast-cancer-patients-helped-with-marijuana/
“Debate is just beginning in Washington over how medical marijuana will be grown and distributed now that the rules for the recreational market are established. Meanwhile, research into medical benefits of compounds within the cannabis plant continues to show effectiveness.
Effectiveness against pain in its many forms and other side effects of major diseases – or the palliative side of marijuana use – have been pretty well established, but can marijuana directly take on a disease as big, scary and deadly as cancer?
“What we’ve shown using just a few of these (cannabis) compounds is that the effects against cancer are really profound. They really are,” said Dr. Wai Liu, a senior research fellow at St George’s University of London.
Anticancer success
Quick note: Cannabinoids are the chemicals in marijuana that have effects in the body, some have psychoactive (or make you high) effects such as THC, and others such as CBD don’t have psychoactive effects but do interact with the body’s “cannabinoid receptors.” There are more than 85 “cannabinoids” in marijuana.
Liu’s most recent published research “explored the activity of six cannabinoids, used both alone and in combination in leukaemic cells.” The research was published in Anticancer Research: International Journal of Cancer Research and Treatment.
He said the anticancer activity of THC has been “known for sometime” but that THC’s psychoactive effect or tendency to get you high limits its use as a cancer-fighting agent. That’s partly due to the negative social stigma about getting high and, of course, not everyone wants to experience a high.
So, he set out to explore the cancer fighting ability of other cannabinoids that don’t get you high.
“We have shown that these six other agents that lack psychoactivity are also just as effective as an anti-cancer agent,” he said. Chief among the six was cannabidiol or CBD.”
“Studies that support marijuana’s medicinal properties are met with a great deal of skepticism due to cannabis’ hallucinogenic effects. Researchers from St. George’s University of London have isolated six non-hallucinogenic cannabinoids that could lead to the development of effective anti-cancer medication.
“This study is a critical step in unpicking the mysteries of cannabis as a source of medicine,” explained the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Wai Liu. “The cannabinoids examined have minimal, if any, hallucinogenic side effects, and their properties as anti-cancer agents are promising.””
“Cannabidiol (CBD), a major phytocannabinoid constituent of cannabis, is attracting growing attention in medicine for its anxiolytic, antipsychotic, antiemetic and anti-inflammatory properties.
However, up to this point, a comprehensive literature review of the effects of CBD in humans is lacking. The aim of the present systematic review is to examine the randomized and crossover studies that administered CBD to healthy controls and to clinical patients.
A systematic search was performed in the electronic databases PubMed and EMBASE using the key word “cannabidiol”. Both monotherapy and combination studies (e.g., CBD + ∆9-THC) were included. A total of 34 studies were identified: 16 of these were experimental studies, conducted in healthy subjects, and 18 were conducted in clinical populations, including multiple sclerosis (six studies), schizophrenia and bipolar mania (four studies), social anxiety disorder (two studies), neuropathic and cancer pain (two studies), cancer anorexia (one study), Huntington’s disease (one study), insomnia (one study), and epilepsy (one study).
Experimental studies indicate that a high-dose of inhaled/intravenous CBD is required to inhibit the effects of a lower dose of ∆9-THC. Moreover, some experimental and clinical studies suggest that oral/oromucosal CBD may prolong and/or intensify ∆9-THC-induced effects, whereas others suggest that it may inhibit ∆9-THC-induced effects.
Finally, preliminary clinical trials suggest that high-dose oral CBD may exert a therapeutic effect for social anxiety disorder, insomnia and epilepsy, but also that it may cause mental sedation. Potential pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic explanations for these results are discussed.”
“To date, anticonvulsant effects of the plant cannabinoid, cannabidivarin (CBDV), have been reported in several animal models of seizure. However, these behaviourally observed anticonvulsant effects have not been confirmed at the molecular level…
These results provide the first molecular confirmation of behaviourally observed effects of the non-psychoactive, anticonvulsant cannabinoid, CBDV, upon chemically-induced seizures and serve to underscore its suitability for clinical development.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24282673
Full-text: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3840466/
Components of the endocannabinoid system-cannabinoid (CB) receptor types 1 and 2, anandamide, and fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), which degrades anandamide and related fatty-acid amides-have been located to lower urinary tract tissues of mice, rats, monkeys, and humans. Studies have located CB receptors in urothelium and sensory nerves and FAAH in the urothelium. CB receptor- and FAAH-related activities have also been reported in the lumbosacral spinal cord. Data on supraspinal CB functions in relation to micturition are lacking. Cannabinoids are reported to reduce sensory activity of isolated tissues, cause antihyperalgesia in animal studies of bladder inflammation, affect urodynamics parameters reflecting sensory functions in animals models, and appear to have effects on storage symptoms in humans. FAAH inhibitors have affected sensory bladder functions and reduced bladder overactivity in rat models. Cannabinoids may modify nerve-mediated functions of isolated lower urinary tract tissues.
Evidence suggests components of the endocannabinoid system are involved in regulation of bladder function, possibly at several levels of the micturition pathway. It is unclear if either CB receptor has a dominant role in modification of sensory signals or if differences exist at peripheral and central nervous sites. Amplification of endocannabinoid activity by FAAH inhibitors may be an attractive drug target in specific pathways involved in LUTS.”
“Osteoarthritis (OA) of the joint is a prevalent disease accompanied by chronic, debilitating pain. Recent clinical evidence has demonstrated that central sensitization contributes to OA pain. An improved understanding of how OA joint pathology impacts upon the central processing of pain is crucial for the identification of novel analgesic targets/new therapeutic strategies.
Inhibitory cannabinoid 2 (CB2) receptors attenuate peripheral immune cell function and modulate central neuro-immune responses in models of neurodegeneration…
These findings suggest that targeting CB2 receptors may have therapeutic potential for treating OA pain.”