Cannabinoids: Potential Anticancer Agents

Julie Gardener

New Member
Cannabinoids: Potential Anticancer Agents​
Cannabinoids — the active components of Cannabis sativa and their derivatives — exert palliative effects in cancer patients by preventing nausea, vomiting and pain and by stimulating appetite. In addition, these compounds have been shown to inhibit the growth of tumour cells in culture and animal models by modulating key cell-signalling pathways. Cannabinoids are usually well tolerated, and do not produce the generalized toxic effects of conventional chemotherapies.
So, could cannabinoids be used to develop new anticancer therapies?

Preparations from Cannabis sativa have been used for many centuries both medicinally and recreationally. However, the chemical structure of their unique active components — the CANNABINOIDS — was not elucidated until the early 1960s. As they are highly hydrophobic, cannabinoids were initially believed to mediate their actions by inserting directly into biomembranes. This scenario changed markedly in the early 1990s, when specific cannabinoid receptors were cloned and their endogenous ligands were characterized, therefore providing a mechanistic basis for cannabinoid action. This led not only to an impressive expansion of basic cannabinoid research, but also to a renaissance in the study of the therapeutic effects of cannabinoids, which now constitutes a widely debated issue with ample scientific, clinical and social relevance. The scientific community has gained substantial knowledge of the palliative and antitumour actions of cannabinoids during the past few years. However, further basic research and more exhaustive clinical trials are still required before cannabinoids can be routinely used in cancer therapy.

Summary

• Cannabinoids, the active components of Cannabis sativa and their derivatives, act in the organism by mimicking endogenous substances, the endocannabinoids, that activate specific cannabinoid receptors. Cannabinoids exert palliative effects in patients with cancer and inhibit tumour growth in laboratory animals.

• The best-established palliative effect of cannabinoids in cancer patients is the inhibition of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Today, capsules of ∆ 9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (dronabinol (Marinol)) and its synthetic analogue nabilone(Cesamet) are approved for this purpose.

• Other potential palliative effects of cannabinoids in cancer patients — supported by Phase III clinical trials — include appetite stimulation and pain inhibition. In relation to the former, dronabinol is now prescribed for anorexia associated with weight loss in patients with AIDS.

• Cannabinoids inhibit tumour growth in laboratory animals. They do so by modulating key cell-signalling pathways, thereby inducing direct growth arrest and death of tumour cells, as well as by inhibiting tumour angiogenesis and metastasis.

• Cannabinoids are selective antitumour compounds, as they can kill tumour cells without affecting their non-transformed counterparts. It is probable that cannabinoid receptors regulate cell-survival and cell-death pathways differently in tumour and nontumour cells.

• Cannabinoids have favourable drug-safety profiles and do not produce the generalized toxic effects of conventional chemotherapies. The use of cannabinoids in medicine, however, is limited by their psychoactive effects, and so cannabinoid-based therapies that are devoid of unwanted side effects are being designed.

• Further basic and preclinical research on cannabinoid anticancer properties is required. It would be desirable that clinical trials could accompany these laboratory studies to allow us to use these compounds in the treatment of cancer.



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