Tag Archives: medicine

Cannabidiol reverses attentional bias to cigarette cues in a human experimental model of tobacco withdrawal.

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“Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-intoxicating cannabinoid, may be a promising novel smoking cessation treatment due to its anxiolytic properties, minimal side-effects and research showing it may modify drug cue salience.

We used an experimental medicine approach with dependent cigarette smokers to investigate if (1) overnight nicotine abstinence, compared with satiety, will produce greater attentional bias (AB), higher pleasantness ratings of cigarette-related stimuli and increased craving and withdrawal; (2) CBD in comparison to placebo, would attenuate AB, pleasantness of cigarette-related stimuli, craving and withdrawal and not produce any side-effects.

FINDINGS:

When participants received placebo, tobacco abstinence increased AB (p=.001, d =.789) compared with satiety. However, CBD reversed this effect, such that automatic AB was directed away from cigarette cues (p=.007, d= .704) and no longer differed from satiety (p=.82). Compared with placebo, CBD also reduced explicit pleasantness of cigarette images (p=.011; d=.514). Craving (Bayes Factor: 7.07) and withdrawal (Bayes Factor: 6.48) were unaffected by CBD, but greater in abstinence compared with satiety. Systolic blood pressure decreased under CBD during abstinence.

CONCLUSIONS:

A single 800mg oral dose of cannabidiol (CBD) reduced the salience and pleasantness of cigarette cues, compared with placebo, after overnight cigarette abstinence in dependent smokers. CBD did not influence tobacco craving or withdrawal or any subjectively rated side-effects.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29714034

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/add.14243

“Cannabidiol reduces attentional bias to cigarette cues in nicotine addicts, study finds” http://www.psypost.org/2018/06/cannabidiol-reduces-attentional-bias-cigarette-cues-nicotine-addicts-study-finds-51351

INSIGHT ON THE IMPACT OF ENDOCANNABINOID SYSTEM IN CANCER: A REVIEW.

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“In the last decades, the endocannabinoid system has attracted a great interest in medicine and cancer disease is probably one of its most promising therapeutic areas.

On the one hand, endocannabinoid system expression has been found altered in numerous types of tumours compared to healthy tissue, and this aberrant expression has been related to cancer prognosis and disease outcome, suggesting a role of this system in tumour growth and progression that depends on cancer type.

On the other hand, it has been reported that cannabinoids exert an anticancer activity by inhibiting the proliferation, migration and/or invasion of cancer cells; and also tumour angiogenesis.

The endocannabinoid system may be considered as a new therapeutic target, although further studies to fully establish the effect of cannabinoids on tumour progression remain necessary.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29663308

https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bph.14331

Cannabis and Anti-Cancer Drugs: Societal Usage and Expected Pharmacological Interactions – A Review.

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Fundamental & Clinical Pharmacology banner

“Cannabis is a plant that has been used for centuries to relieve a wide range of symptoms. Since the 1960s, interest in medical research into this plant has grown steadily. Already very popular for recreational use, a growing number of consumers not accustomed to using cannabis for psychoactive purposes, have begun to use it as an alternative or complement to mainstream pharmaceutical medicines. The principal unsubstantiated or “social” uses of cannabis are based mainly on data that is at best controversial, but usually not scientifically proven. The aim of this review is to identify the scientific basis and reasons that lead patients with cancer to consume cannabis, and also to identify whether there is a risk of interaction between cannabis and anti-cancer medicines through drug transporters (P-glycoprotein and other ABC-superfamily members) Cytochromes P450 (3A, 1A, 2B, 2C 2D families…) and glucuronyl-transferases.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29660159

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/fcp.12373

“Cannabinoids as Anticancer Drugs.”  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28826542

“Targeting the endocannabinoid system as a potential anticancer approach.”  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29390896

“Anticancer mechanisms of cannabinoids”   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4791144/

http://www.thctotalhealthcare.com/tag/anticancer/

Endocannabinoid system in systemic lupus erythematosus: first evidence for a deranged 2-arachidonoylglycerol metabolism.

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The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology

“The endocannabinoid (eCB) system plays a key role in many physiological and pathological conditions and its dysregulation has been described in several rheumatological and autoimmune diseases. Yet, its possible alteration in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has never been investigated.

Here, we aimed filling this gap in plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with SLE and age- and sex- matched healthy subjects (HS).

In conclusion, our results demonstrate, for the first time, an alteration of eCB system in SLE patients. They represents the first step toward the understanding of the role of eCB system in SLE that likely suggest DAGL and 2-AG as potential biomarkers of SLE in easily accessible blood samples.

Our data provides proof-of-concept to the development of cannabis-based medicine as immune-modulating agents.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29655919

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1357272518300852?via%3Dihub

Cannabis for Chronic Pain: Challenges and Considerations.

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Pharmacotherapy: The Journal of Human Pharmacology and Drug Therapy banner

“The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has found substantial evidence that cannabis (plant) is effective for the treatment of chronic pain in adults, and moderate evidence that oromucosal cannabinoids (extracts, especially nabiximols) improve short-term sleep disturbances in chronic pain. ”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29637590

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/phar.2115

The therapeutic effects of Cannabis and cannabinoids: An update from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report

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European Journal of Internal Medicine

“The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine conducted a rapid turn-around comprehensive review of recent medical literature on The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids.

In the Therapeutics chapter reviewed here, the report concluded that there was conclusive or substantial evidence that Cannabis or cannabinoids are effective for the treatment of pain in adults; chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis. Moderate evidence was found for secondary sleep disturbances. The evidence supporting improvement in appetite, Tourette syndrome, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, epilepsy and a variety of neurodegenerative disorders was described as limited, insufficient or absent. A chapter of the NASEM report enumerated multiple barriers to conducting research on Cannabis in the US that may explain the paucity of positive therapeutic benefits in the published literature to date.

The 2017 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report, like the 1999 Institute of Medicine publication before it, did conclude that there is evidence to support the therapeutic effect of Cannabis and cannabinoids in a number of conditions. Although it is well appreciated that the plural of anecdote is not evidence, it must also be remembered that in the case of evaluating the therapeutic effects of Cannabis as published in the medical literature, the absence of evidence is not necessarily indicative of evidence of the absence of effectiveness. ”

http://www.ejinme.com/article/S0953-6205(18)30003-7/fulltext

“Researchers claim that medicinal cannabis is safe and effective for pain relief, and are calling for the treatment to be properly established in our modern medical arsenal” https://www.drugtargetreview.com/news/30737/medicinal-cannabis-safe-effective/

Medical cannabis for paediatric developmental–behavioural and psychiatric disorders

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“Humans have used marijuana for millennia, variously as a spiritual sacrament, herbal medicine, dietary supplement or psychoactive inebriant. Use of Medical Cannabis (MC) is advocated for an increasing range of medical indications. Anecdotally, use of naturally occurring cannabis (phytocannabinoids) is said to have a calming effect in some children. There has been little drug discovery work in the field of child and adolescent mental health for many years, and there is an urgent need to develop safe and effective therapeutics for this vulnerable patient group. Medical cannabis may be one such treatment. In summary, MC has potential as a therapeutic option in the management of paediatric mental health symptoms; however, the evidence to support its use for these patients is not yet in. ” https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jpc.13902

The Role of Cannabis Legalization in the Opioid Crisis

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“The United States remains gripped by the opioid crisis. Each day, 90 Americans die from opioid overdoses. Owing to the incredible reach of the opioid crisis—it has affected people of every race, sex, and age across our country—many stakeholders are trying to combat the crisis using multipronged approaches emphasizing prevention, treatment, and law enforcement.

In this issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, Bradford et al and Wen and Hockenberry report results suggesting that cannabis legalization may play a beneficial role in the opioid crisis.”

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2676997

The current state and future perspectives of cannabinoids in cancer biology.

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Cancer Medicine

“To date, cannabinoids have been allowed in the palliative medicine due to their analgesic and antiemetic effects, but increasing number of preclinical studies indicates their anticancer properties. Cannabinoids exhibit their action by a modulation of the signaling pathways crucial in the control of cell proliferation and survival. Many in vitro and in vivo experiments have shown that cannabinoids inhibit proliferation of cancer cells, stimulate autophagy and apoptosis, and have also a potential to inhibit angiogenesis and metastasis. In this review, we present an actual state of knowledge regarding molecular mechanisms of cannabinoids’ anticancer action, but we discuss also aspects that are still not fully understood such as the role of the endocannabinoid system in a carcinogenesis, the impact of cannabinoids on the immune system in the context of cancer development, or the cases of a stimulation of cancer cells’ proliferation by cannabinoids. The review includes also a summary of currently ongoing clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of cannabinoids as anticancer agents.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29473338

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cam4.1312/abstract

History of marijuana use does not affect outcomes on the liver transplant waitlist.

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“Data are limited on marijuana use and its impact on liver transplant (LT) waitlist outcomes.

We aimed to assess the risk of waitlist mortality/delisting and likelihood of LT among prior marijuana users, and to determine the prevalence and factors associated with marijuana use.

Unlike illicit drug use, marijuana use was not associated with worse outcomes on the LT waitlist.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29319619

https://insights.ovid.com/crossref?an=00007890-900000000-96711

https://journals.lww.com/transplantjournal/Abstract/onlinefirst/History_of_marijuana_use_does_not_affect_outcomes.96711.aspx

“Do Cannabinoids have a therapeutic role in transplantation? Transplantation is one critical area of medicine that requires the use of immunosuppressants. Cannabinoids have emerged as powerful drug candidates for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases due to their immunosuppressive properties.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2923447/
“The history of donor cannabis smoking does not appear to affect early and mid-term outcomes after lung transplantation (LTx) and potentially improve the donor pool. As it does not seem to negatively affect the outcomes after LTx, it should not be per se considered a contraindication for lung donation.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28077504
“THC In Marijuana Delays Organ Transplant Rejection In Mice. A new study suggests the active ingredient in marijuana delays the rejection of incompatible organs in mice.” http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/thc-marijuana-may-delay-organ-transplant-rejection/
“Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol attenuates allogeneic host-versus-graft response and delays skin graft rejection through activation of cannabinoid receptor 1 and induction of myeloid-derived suppressor cells” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4541500/
“Cannabidiol Limits T Cell-Mediated Chronic Autoimmune Myocarditis: Implications to Autoimmune Disorders and Organ Transplantation. CBD may represent a promising novel treatment for management of autoimmune myocarditis and possibly other autoimmune disorders, and organ transplantation.” http://pubmedcentralcanada.ca/pmcc/articles/PMC5004721/
“Could CANNABIS help transplant patients? Drug ‘delays rejection of organs by slowing the immune system’s attack'” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3279752/Could-CANNABIS-help-transplant-patients-Drug-delays-rejection-organs-slowing-immune-s-attack.html