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Medical Forum / General / Alternative / March 2008Potent Mind-altering Antioxidant
Cannabis may limit damage from strokes and Alzheimer's Independent, The (London), Jul 6, 1998 by Steve Connor Science Editor CANNABIS COULD protect brain cells against the effects of a stroke and may help to slow the mental deterioration associated with neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Scientists have found that a component of marijuana acts as a powerful antioxidant in the brain which can prevent cells being damaged when a blood vessel in the head becomes blocked during a stroke. Experiments revealed that cannabidiol, which is a harmless constituent of marijuana and does not produce a "high", is a more powerful antioxidant than vitamins C and D, which are known to neutralise the highly damaging free radicals released during a stroke. Dr Aidan Hampson, a British-born researcher at the United States National Institute of Mental Health, near Washington DC, said the discovery could eventually lead to a treatment for stroke based on the cannabis plant. "We have reason to believe we are on to a good thing here. Cannabidiol was given to humans in large doses in other clinical trials with no significant adverse effects," Dr Hampson said. "We could synthesise it and administer it to patients as a pill, in an inhaler or even as a suppository, although that would not be as popular. It is non- psychoactive which makes it particularly useful." The research, which is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, also found that the mind-altering ingredient of cannabis - tetrahyrocannabinol (THC) - also behaved as a potent antioxidant which protected brain cells against the sort of oxygen starvation caused by a stroke. The US National Academy of Sciences, which publishes the proceedings, said: "These findings suggest that cannabidiol may be a promising treatment for stroke and other neurological disorders including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, (which are) also thought to involve oxidative damage." Dr Hampson said that when a blood vessel in the brain becomes blocked a complex set of reactions takes place that culminates in the power houses of the cell, called mitochondria, pumping out free radicals. When he exposed the nerve cells of laboratory animals to cannabidiol he found it significantly reduced the damage resulting from the release of free radicals. The dose levels were similar to those known to be safe in humans. "These are the very first results and I would be surprised if we get through all the stages of drug trials for humans in less than five or six years," Dr Hampson said. However, the research findings do not explain whether people who smoke cannabis are less likely to suffer ill effects following a stroke. "We don't know whether smoking produces these levels of cannabidiol," he said. Copyright 1998 Newspaper Publishing PLC Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved. Who loves ya. Tom Jesus Was A Vegetarian! http://jesuswasavegetarian.7h.com Man Is A Herbivore! http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3 DEAD PEOPLE WALKING http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk On Mar 11, 10:45 am, ironjustice <teamtan...@hotmail.com> wrote:cannabidiol << Published online on August 1, 2000, 10.1073/pnas.160105897 PNAS | August 15, 2000 | vol. 97 | no. 17 | 9561-9566 Immunology The nonpsychoactive cannabis constituent cannabidiol is an oral anti- arthritic therapeutic in murine collagen-induced arthritis A. M. Malfait*,, R. Gallily,, P. F. Sumariwalla*, A. S. Malik*, E. Andreakos*, R. Mechoulam, and M. Feldmann*,§ * Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, 1 Aspenlea Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8LH, United Kingdom; and Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, P.O.B. 12272, Jerusalem 91120, Israel Edited by Anthony Cerami, The Kenneth S. Warren Laboratories, Tarrytown, NY, and approved June 2, 2000 (received for review March 10, 2000) Abstract The therapeutic potential of cannabidiol (CBD), the major nonpsychoactive component of cannabis, was explored in murine collagen- induced arthritis (CIA). CIA was elicited by immunizing DBA/1 mice with type II collagen (CII) in complete Freund's adjuvant. The CII used was either bovine or murine, resulting in classical acute CIA or in chronic relapsing CIA, respectively. CBD was administered after onset of clinical symptoms, and in both models of arthritis the treatment effectively blocked progression of arthritis. CBD was equally effective when administered i.p. or orally. The dose dependency showed a bell-shaped curve, with an optimal effect at 5 mg/kg per day i.p. or 25 mg/kg per day orally. Clinical improvement was associated with protection of the joints against severe damage. Ex vivo, draining lymph node cells from CBD-treated mice showed a diminished CII-specific proliferation and IFN- production, as well as a decreased release of tumor necrosis factor by knee synovial cells. In vitro effects of CBD included a dose-dependent suppression of lymphocyte proliferation, both mitogen-stimulated and antigen- specific, and the blockade of the Zymosan-triggered reactive oxygen burst by peritoneal granulocytes. It also was found that CBD administration was capable of blocking the lipopolysaccharide-induced rise in serum tumor necrosis factor in C57/ BL mice. Taken together, these data show that CBD, through its combined immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory actions, has a potent anti- arthritic effect in CIA. Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the major components of Cannabis sativa, marijuana (1). Marijuana contains approximately 80 constituents, termed cannabinoids (2, 3). CBD is not psychoactive, unlike the other major component of cannabis, 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (9THC) (4, 5). A vast literature documents the immune modulating effects of cannabinoids, in vivo and in vitro, mainly of 9THC and synthetic analogues such as CP55,940 (reviewed in ref. 6). A nonexhaustive list of in vitro effects includes inhibition of the proliferative responses of T lymphocytes (7), inhibition of cytotoxic T cell activity (8), suppression of macrophage function and antigen presentation (9, 10), and inhibition of NO production by macrophages (11). Reports on the in vitro effects of CBD on immune cells are scarce and include the modulation of tumor necrosis factor (TNF), IL-1, and IFN- by human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (12, 13) and the suppression of chemokine production by a human B cell line (14). These potentially anti-inflammatory properties of CBD, together with the lack of psychotropic effect and low toxicity (15), prompted us to test the potential of CBD as a therapeutic agent in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). CIA, a murine model for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), is elicited by immunizing DBA/1 mice with type II collagen (CII) in complete Freund's adjuvant (16). The immune response to CII involves both humoral and cellular mechanisms (17, 18), and the cellular response is T helper 1-mediated (19). CIA is characterized by rapid onset of clinical joint inflammation, resulting in destruction of joint tissues and cartilage/ bone erosions. Suppression of the inflammatory process by blocking TNF with mAbs has proven an effective treatment of CIA (20, 21), and these findings led to the successful use of TNF blockade in multiple phase I, II, and III clinical trials with RA patients (reviewed in ref. 22), thus validating the predictive value of CIA as a model for RA. In the present study, we report that CBD has a beneficial therapeutic action on established CIA, and we explore its mode of action. Who loves ya. Tom Jesus Was A Vegetarian! http://jesuswasavegetarian.7h.com Man Is A Herbivore! http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3 DEAD PEOPLE WALKING http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk > Cannabis may limit damage from strokes and Alzheimer's > Independent, The (London), Jul 6, 1998 by Steve Connor Science [quoted text clipped - 65 lines] > > DEAD PEOPLE WALKINGhttp://tinyurl.com/zk9fk On Mar 11, 11:16 am, ironjustice <teamtan...@hotmail.com> wrote:cannabidiol has a beneficial therapeutic action on established CIA, and we explore its mode of action << I assume everyone can speak .. German .. ? Article Interaction of Trivalent Iron with Some Cannabinoids and their related compounds Dr. Z. Mobarak 1 *, Dr. H. Aly 2, Dr. D. Bieniek 3 1The National Center of Social and Criminological Research, Awkaf City, Gezira P.O., Cairo, A.R. Egypt 2Atomic Energy Establishment, Cairo, A.R. Egypt 3Institute for Ecological Chemistry, 8042 Neuherberg/FRG *Correspondence to Z. Mobarak, The National Center of Social and Criminological Research, Awkaf City, Gezira P.O., Cairo, A.R. Egypt Abstract Translated Abstract Wechselwirkung zwischen Eisen(III)-Ionen und einigen Cannabinoiden und verwandten Verbindungen Die Reaktion zwischen Orcinol, Olivetol oder Cannabidiol und dreiwertigem Eisen wurde spektroskopisch untersucht. Zwischen Eisen(III)-Ionen und Orcinol bzw. Olivetol bilden sich in Methanol 1:3 Komplexe (Dissoziationskonstanten 1,5 × 10-5 bzw. 2,5 × 10-7). Keine Wechselwirkung konnte unter analogen Bedingungen zwischen Fe3+-ionen und Cannabidiol beobachtet werden. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Received: 7 March 1979 Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.1002/prac.19803220303 About DOI Who loves ya. Tom Jesus Was A Vegetarian! http://jesuswasavegetarian.7h.com Man Is A Herbivore! http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3 DEAD PEOPLE WALKING http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk > On Mar 11, 10:45 am, ironjustice <teamtan...@hotmail.com> > wrote:cannabidiol << [quoted text clipped - 159 lines] > > - Show quoted text - |
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