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sibannac
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 02 Jun 2004
Posts: 456
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 Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2004 12:55 pm Post subject: Cannabis receptors identified...... |
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It looks like we may have more proof of the sacramental importance of cannabis why else would all sorts of creatures have them???
It also strengthens the medical benefits of cannabis !!!
Some of the stories on the links show just how unjust governments can be.
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URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1094/a05.html
Newshawk: Ohio Patient Network http://www.ohiopatient.net/
Rate this article Votes: 0
Pubdate: Sat, 31 Jul 2004
Source: British Medical Journal, The (UK)
Copyright: 2004 The BMJ
Contact: letters@bmj.com
Website: http://www.bmj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/60
Author: Geoff Watts, science editor, BMJ
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/cannabinoids
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Anandamide
HIGH HOPES FOR CANNABINOID ANALGESIA
Several decades of irrational prejudice may have hampered clinical research on cannabis as a medicine, but work on the pharmacology of its active ingredients has been making steady progress. Just as the body has a natural counterpart to the opiate drugs, so too it makes its own endogenous cannabinoids. These act through receptors, of which two variants--CB1 and CB2--have been definitely identified and at least one other is suspected. The CB1 receptors are located only in the brain; their CB2 counterparts are found peripherally, and especially on the cells of the immune system. Cannabinoid receptors are present not just in vertebrates but also in molluscs, leeches, and other invertebrate groups that have been evolutionarily separate for 500 million years. The fact that natural selection has for so long conserved these receptors is an indication of their physiological importance.
Anandamide, the first natural cannabinoid to be isolated, came to light in 1992. Its precise role, and those of the other cannabinoids that have since been identified, remains uncertain; but evidence exists that all play a part in memory, appetite, the control of movement, and, especially, the modulation of pain.1 With respect to the last of these, the sites of cannabinoid action in the central nervous system are confined to specific areas, most of which--the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, for example2 3--are involved in processing pain signals. Clear parallels exist between cannabinoid and opiod receptors, and evidence is accumulating that the two systems sometimes interact,4 and may operate synergistically. One unproved but intriguing idea is that endocannabinoids may set the "analgesic tone" of the body, with the level of their production acting as a kind of pain thermostat.
The perception of pain is controlled by neurotransmitter systems within the central nervous system, but peripheral tissues also have mechanisms for relieving and preventing pain. Cannabinoids may therefore have two distinct roles in relation to pain. The evidence comes from animal experiments showing that cannabinoids lower the response of pain neurones in the spinal cord and also in parts of the thalamus in the brain. The possibility that cannabinoid receptor subtypes act synergistically hints at a potentially valuable strategy: the development of a new class of analgesic drug comprising a mixture of synthetic CB1 and CB2 agonists. Alternatively, devising agents to slow the breakdown of natural cannabinoids might potentiate their analgesic effects.5
The brain has many more CB1 than opioid receptors, and interest in the therapeutic potential of cannabinoids has prompted the development of several synthetic variants, of which dronabinol is one.1 Many of these compounds bind to both CB1 and CB2 receptors, but differences between the two suggest that it should be possible to design drugs that would attach to only one of them. This might offer a means of producing more selective biological actions, including analgesia without some of the psychotropic effects that might disturb people whose wish was to be pain-free but not "high."
A review by the US Institute of Medicine has commented on how little we know about cannabinoids in comparison with opiates.2 A comparison between the history of research into the two groups, the review added, "suggests good reason for optimism about the future of cannabinoid drug development."
REFERENCES
Svendsen KB, Jensen TS, Bach FW. Does the cannabinoid dronabinol reduce central pain in multiple sclerosis? Randomised double blind placebo controlled crossover trial. BMJ 2004;329: 253-7.
Joy JE, Watson SJ, Besnon JA, eds. Marijuana and medicine. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999.
Farquhar-Smith WP, Egertova M, Bradbury EJ, McMahon SB, Rice ASC, Elphick MR. Cannabinoid CB( 1 ) receptor expression in rat spinal cord. Mol Cell Neurosci 2000;15: 510-21.
Tanda G, Goldberg SR. Cannabinoids: reward, dependence, and underlying neurochemical mechanisms-a review of recent preclinical data. Psychopharmacology 2003;169: 115-34.
Walker JM, Huang SM, Strangman NM, Tsou K, Sanudo-Pena MC. Pain modulation by release of the endogenous cannabinoid anandamide. Proc Natl Acad Sci 1999;96: 12198-203. |
NOW its time the politicians listened.
_________________
http://www.cannabis-assembly.co.uk
Last edited by sibannac on Mon Aug 02, 2004 1:01 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Rev. Rodger L. Poole
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 10 May 2004
Posts: 480
Location: Im not here! Im where things HAPPEN.
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| Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2004 1:00 pm Post subject: |
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This is something I have looked at...
Why would we have cannabis receptors if we arent supposed to use cannabis?
The answer is that the body makes something very similar to cannabis in our bodies, these chemicals are called andanimides. they work very much the same way as cannabis does in the body. Cannabis happens to be a key that fits in the same neurotransmitter lock as andanimides. very cool stuff. |
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