An Alternative to Medicinal Marijuana
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An Alternative to Medicinal Marijuana
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
SUNDAY, April 27 (HealthDay News) — Scientists think they may have found a way to harness marijuana’s medicinal powers without unleashing the plant’s memory-robbing properties.
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But a new and improved dope-based medication is unlikely to hit doctors’ offices near you soon.
“This has great potential but it’s years off from human application,” said single in kind expert, Dr. Dennis J. Patin, associate professor of clinical anesthesiology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “I expect that some drug company will research further,” he said.
And John Casida, more advanced author of the paper in the April 27 issue of Nature Chemical Biology, stressed that his team “report new fundamental mechanistic discoveries on the cannabinoid system, rather than proposing a medicine or usage.”
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, have power to relieve both pain and anxiety but, unfortunately, too results in cognitive problems such as memory loss.
In fact, one recent study found that multiple sclerosis patients who smoke marijuana in search of symptom relief are more likely to suffer cognitive shortfalls and mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety.
Casida and his colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., found that organophosphorus (OP) power agents blocked the ruin of certain enzymes, which has the close result of stimulating the cannabinoid receptors in the brain.
OP strength agents work like OP pesticides, leading to an excess of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the central and peripheral nervous regularity.
In this experiment, using mice, the OP compounds had the therapeutic effects of THC (penalty relief/muscle relaxant relief, lower body temperatures) without the cognitive drawbacks.
“We find that that a single organophosphorus compound is capable of eliciting full-blown cannabinoid effects that mirror those of direct cannabinoid receptor stimulators such as THC,” said Casida, who is director of the Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology Laboratory at Berkeley. “We give credit to our compound does not act directly on the cannabinoid receptors, but instead elicits its effects by blocking the enzymes that degrade the endogenous cannabinoids … which in turn stimulate the cannabinoid receptors in the brain.”
“Blocking these enzymes not single raises endogenous cannabinoid signaling power but also lowers arachidonic acid levels, which may have existence relevant for pain relief,” Casida added. The arachidonic acid pathway is involved in pain and inflammation.
This raises the tantalizing possibility that, one day, a drug might be developed which has of medicine value but does not get the patient stoned.
SOURCES: John Casida, Ph.D., professor, entomology and toxicology, and director, Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley; Dennis J. Patin, M.D., affiliate professor of clinical anesthesiology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; April 27, 2008, Nature Chemical Biology
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