“After anecdotal reports of marijuana’s providing antiemetic activity in cancer chemotherapy patients refractory to standard agents, orally administereddelta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was formally studied by a number of investigators.
In six of seven well-controlled studies, orally administered THC was a superior antiemetic agent compared with control agents.
Overall, the benefits of orally administered THC use represent a major advance in antiemetic therapy.”
“delta 9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), prochlorperazine, and placebo were compared.
Nausea was absent in 40 of 55 patients receiving THC, in 8 of 55 patients receiving prochlorperazine, and in 5 of 55 in the placebo group.
THC appeared to be more efficacious in controlling the emesis associated with cyclophosphamide, 5-fluorouracil, and doxorubicin and less so for nitrogen mustard and the nitrosourea.
THC appears to offer significant control of nausea in most patients and exceeds by far that provided by prochlorperazine.”
“Fifty-three patients receiving antineoplastic chemotherapy who had experienced severe nausea and vomiting refractory to standard antiemetic agents were treated with delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
These patients were given THC 8 to 12 hours before, during, and for 24 hours after chemotherapy.
Ten patients (19%) had no further nausea and vomiting; 28 (53%) had at least a 50% reduction of nausea and vomiting compared to previous courses with the same agents.
We suggest that, since THC is a useful antimetic agent in patients having refractory chemotherapy-induced vomiting, existing restrictions prohibiting its therapeutic use should promptly be eased.”
“Marijuana derived from the plant Cannabis sativa has been used for the treatment of many gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, including anorexia, emesis, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and others.
Several cannabinoid receptors, which include the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1), CB2, and possibly GPR55, have been identified throughout the GI tract.
These receptors may play a role in the regulation of food intake, nausea and emesis, gastric secretion and gastroprotection, GI motility, ion transport, visceral sensation, intestinal inflammation, and cell proliferation in the gut.
…the regulation of nausea and vomiting by cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system has shed new knowledge in this field.
Novel drug targets such as FAAH and monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL) inhibitors appear to be promising in animal models, but more studies are necessary to prove their efficiency.
The promise of emerging drugs that are more selective and peripherally acting suggest that, in the near future, cannabinoids will play a major role in managing an array of GI diseases.”
“One of the oldest pharmacological remedies for nausea and vomiting is the plant cannabis…
Cannabis has long been known to limit or prevent nausea and vomiting from a variety of causes.
This has led to extensive investigations that have revealed an important role for cannabinoids and their receptors in the regulation of nausea and emesis.
With the discovery of the endocannabinoid system, novel ways to regulate both nausea and vomiting have been discovered that involve the production of endogenous cannabinoids acting centrally.
Here we review recent progress in understanding the regulation of nausea and vomiting by cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system, and we discuss the potential to utilize the endocannabinoid system in the treatment of these frequently debilitating conditions…
Nausea and vomiting are frequently debilitating conditions that require substantial effort and cost to manage.
Advances in recent progress in understanding the regulation of nausea and vomiting by cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system have revealed significant potential for therapeutic approaches to be developed.”
“The sensation of nausea is one of the most debilitating human experiences. Current anti-emetic therapies are effective in reducing vomiting, but are less effective in reducing acute and delayed nausea and are completely ineffective in reducing anticipatory nausea.
Recent pre-clinical evidence using a selective rat model of nausea (conditioned gaping reactions) has revealed that cannabinoids have great promise as treatments for nausea and that their anti-nausea effects may be mediated by the interoceptive insular cortex.”
“The early proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is released in significant quantities by the activated immune system in response to infection, leukemia, autoimmune disorders, and radiation sickness. Nausea, emesis, and anorexia are common features of these disorders. TNF action on vagal afferent terminals in the brainstem is a likely cause of the malaise associated with these disorders.
For millennia, cannabinoids(CB) have been used to combat the visceral malaise associated with chronic disease…
These results help to explain the effectiveness of cannabinoids in blocking the malaise generated by TNF-releasing disease processes by opposing effects on ryanodine channels.
We believe that this is the first demonstration of the likely intracellular mechanism used by CB1 analogs to block the effects of TNF on neurotransmitter mechanisms that cause pain and visceral malaise.
These results may explain how cannabinoids can be effective in the treatment of the allodynia and visceral malaise of chronic disease.”
“Cannabinoids are a group of compounds found in the marijuana plant (Cannabis sativaL.). Marijuana has been used both for recreational and medicinal purposes for several centuries.
Cannabinoids have been shown to be effective in the treatment of nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy, anorexia and cachexia seen in HIV/AIDS patients, as well as neuropathic pain, and spasticity in multiple sclerosis.
More recently, the anti-inflammatory properties of cannabinoids are drawing significant attention. In the last 15 years, studies with marijuana cannabinoids led to the discovery of cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2) and their endogenous ligands, which make up what is known as the endocannabinoid system.
Cannabinoids are a group of compounds present in Cannabis plant (Cannabis sativa L.). They mediate their physiological and behavioral effects by activating specific cannabinoid receptors. With the recent discovery of the cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2) and the endocannabinoid system, research in this field has expanded exponentially.
Cannabinoids have been shown to act as potent immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory agents and have been shown to mediate beneficial effects in a wide range of immune-mediated diseases such as multiple sclerosis, diabetes, septic shock, rheumatoid arthritis, and allergic asthma.
Cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) is mainly expressed on the cells of the central nervous system as well as in the periphery. In contrast, cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) is predominantly expressed on immune cells. The precise mechanisms through which cannabinoids mediate immunosuppression is only now beginning to be understood…
In this review, we will focus on apoptotic mechanisms of immunosuppression mediated by cannabinoids on different immune cell populations and discuss how activation of CB2 provides a novel therapeutic modality against inflammatory and autoimmune diseases as well as malignancies of the immune system, without exerting the untoward psychotropic effects…
…cannabinoids do induce apoptosis in immune cells, alleviating inflammatory responses and protecting the host from acute and chronic inflammation.
The cumulative effect of cannabinoids on all cell populations of the immune system can be beneficial, when there is a need for immune suppression.
For example, in patients with autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, arthritis and lupus, or in those with septic shock, where the disease is caused by activated immune cells, targeting the immune cells via CB2 agonists may trigger apoptosis and act as anti-inflammatory therapy.
CB2 select agonists are not psychoactive and because CB2 is expressed primarily in immune cells, use of CB2 agonists could provide a novel therapeutic modality against autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
In addition to the use of exogenous cannabinoids, in vivo manipulation of endocannabinoids may also offer novel treatment opportunities against cancer and autoimmune diseases.”
“For centuries Cannabis sativa and cannabis extracts have been used in natural medicine.
Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main active ingredient of Cannabis. THC seems to be responsible for most of the pharmacological and therapeutic actions of cannabis.
In a few countries THC extracts (i.e. Sativex) or THC derivatives such as nabilone, and dronabinol are used in the clinic for the treatment of several pathological conditions like chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma.
Over recent years, alternative approaches using synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists or agents acting as activators of the endocannabinoid systems are under scrutiny with the hope to develop more effective and safer clinical applications.
The present article review recent study and patents with focus on the cannabinoid system as a target for the treatment of central nervous system disorders with emphasis on agonists.”
“This is an exciting time for cannabinoid research. The discovery of cannabinoid CB1receptors (expressed by central and peripheral neurones) and CB2 receptors (expressed mainly by immune cells) and endogenous agonists for these receptors has renewed the scientific community’s interest. Independently of these developments society at large has continued an aggressive debate about the therapeutic use of cannabinoids, including demands for their more liberal availability. Cannabinoids have been suggested to have therapeutic value as analgesics and in various conditions, including migraine headaches, nausea and vomiting, wasting syndrome and appetite stimulation in HIV-infected patients, muscle spasticity due to multiple sclerosis or spinal cord injury, movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and glaucoma.”