Drugs used to treat cancer following surgery are meant to slow its progression, though they don’t always seize cancer cells from spreading throughout your body, nor do they help with the pain connected with different types of cancer. Marijuana is a remedy that can accomplish both of those things.
Arrangements of cannabis plants have been used for thousands of years for a variety of medicinal treatments and it’s time for this practice to re-surface. Though research is slim, there are some studies that indicate cannabis may do more than just reduce pain; it may also eliminate cancer cells and stop it from spreading.
There was a study conducted at St. George’s University of London, and research found that the two most common cannabinoids in cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), eased the aggressiveness of cancer cells and made them more vulnerable to radiation treatment. The human body generates chemicals that are similar to these cannabinoids, called endocannabinoids.
Aymen Idris, a researcher, inventor and senior lecturer of pharmacology at the University of Sheffield, explained, that one way to increase the action of the body’s own cannabis-like system is by constraining the enzymes that break down our natural endocannabinoids. One of these enzymes, called monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL), is found in healthy tissues such as the brain, bone and the immune system.
They also displayed that the drug trimmed the growth of cancer cells and stopped their spread to other parts of the body. “At the University of Sheffield, we have validated the anti-cancer effects of various MAGL inhibitors on mice with breast and bone cancers,” reported Aymen.
The results from this most recent study will be published in 2018.
Idris added that there is a risk that experimental drugs that prohibit the action of MAGL may cause psychiatric problems similar to those experienced by some cannabis users. To avoid that, they are going after a variety of strategies to design and test new drugs that only enter and build in the tumor cells. This is known as a “ball-and-chain” strategy.
“Our studies, carried out in test-tubes, have shown that the ball-and-chain drugs can kill cancer cells and stop them moving,” he added. “Encouraged by these findings, we are now looking to validate the anti-cancer effects of the new drugs in mice.”
The research team at the University of Sheffield, a public research university in England, is pursuing capital to continue research to discover if the new drugs may be effective in alleviating pain in mice suffering from osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer that causes bone pain.
“Treatment with drugs that stop the body breaking down its own cannabis in peripheral tissues, or drugs that mimic the action of natural cannabis outside the brain,” Idris reported, “may be a fruitful way to develop safer cannabis drugs for treating cancer.”
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