Naturally produced 'cannabis' in the brain

[Tom]

Researchers in the United States have found that a cannabis like chemical produced naturally in the brain helps with pain relief.

They say the finding may lead to new drugs which can stimulate this natural response.

 

Research has so far concentrated on developing compounds in cannabis itself into medications, but this study shows for the first time that natural marijuana-like chemicals in the brain have a link to pain suppression.

 

The US scientists say their new understanding of how the brain chemical works could lead to drugs with fewer side-effects.

 

Professor Danielle Piomelli, director of the Center for Drug Discovery at the University of California, Irvine, says that when the body experiences pain under stressful circumstances, such as an injury during sport or even after a gunshot wound, the body is protected for a period of time.

 

This response is called stress-induced analgesia.

 

In a study in rats the team found, for the first time, how chemicals called endocannabinoids play a part in this process.

 

The production of one cannabinoid compound, 2-AG, was found to be triggered by stress-related pain, so the researchers then looked at ways of boosting this natural response.

 

As an enzyme called monoacylglycerol lipase normally brings the production of 2-AG to a halt, the team, developed a chemical which was able to block the enzyme's action, meaning the body could theoretically continue to keep producing 2-AG.

 

Professor Piomelli says the study shows for the first time that natural marijuana-like chemicals in the brain have a link to pain suppression, and apart from identifying an important function of these compounds, it provides a template for a new class of pain medications that can possibly replace others shown to have acute side effects.

 

Piomelli says if chemicals can be designed that can tweak the levels of these cannabinoid compounds in the brain, it might be possible to boost their normal effects.

 

Dr Andrea Hohmann, a neuroscientist at the University of Georgia, who also worked on the research, says as yet there is no prescription or over-the-counter drug that allows us to manipulate the level of the brain's compounds.

 

She says this is the first time anyone has shown that one of the body's natural occurring cannabinoids, 2-AG, has anything to do with pain regulation under natural conditions.

 

Dr Anita Holdcroft, a reader in anaesthesia at Imperial College, says the study adds to knowledge about how the body deals with pain.

 

The study is published in the current edition of Nature.

 

Author:News-Medical.Net

Date:Thursday, 23-Jun-2005

Source:News-Medical.Net

Copyright:News-Medical.Net

 

Piomelli says if chemicals can be designed that can tweak the levels of these cannabinoid compounds in the brain, it might be possible to boost their normal effects.

Why do they need to design a chemical to do the job when nature has provided us with cannabis for that very purpose? Mj has already a long history of use (and abuse ) by the human race and could be legalised tomorrow.

 

[dicepunk]

Hopefully thou the links between 2-AG and pain relief might add to the medical cannabis campaign. Its not hard to draw the conclusion that if one cannabinoid can have proven effects with pain releif that more quite possibly could aswell. Fucking scientists just catching up with the rest of us.

[WantDaChronic]

what really scares me is that scientists would rather change the chemical make up of your brains than giving out a few grams of smoko

 

hmmm in 1 hand theres a pill that changes the chemical structure of your brain, in the other hand you have a packed bong, i wonder which 99.9999% of us would choose

[Amnesiac]

Is this what people refer to usually as 'shock'?

 

 

You know how you get badly injured and you freak out and at that very moment, you can't feel pain? Is this what we're on about or is that something completely different?

[jethroqwalrustitty]

hmmm in 1 hand theres a pill that changes the chemical structure of your brain, in the other hand you have a packed bong, i wonder which 99.9999% of us would choose 

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

not really much thought needed to come to the right decision, i dont know anyone who would take a ganja pill instead of a bong. It must be the pleasure of smoking :smoke

[F420]

http://web.sfn.org/content/Publications/Br...nnabinoids.html

 

 

 

Cannabinoids and Pain

 

Suggestions have been floated for years that substances similar to or derived from marijuana, known as cannabinoids, could kill pain. But the main proof was based on anecdotes. And if claims were true, it was unclear if cannabinoids decreased pain directly or if other behavioral or euphoric effects of the compounds were responsible. Now, careful studies show that cannabinoids directlly interfere with pain signaling in the nervous system. The insights may lead to a new class of pain killers.

 

Bronze coins dated 315 to 392 A.D. The skeletal remains of a young girl thought to be giving birth. A gray, carbonized material.

      The treasures of a tomb near Jerusalem tell a tale. Some 1,600 years ago, researchers suspect that the girl consumed the gray substance to relieve labor pains. And what was this mystery dust? Researchers say it's remnants of marijuana.

      For years, scientists were uncertain if scattered references to the compound's influence on pain were mere pipe dreams or the real thing. Now careful studies on animals are showing that indeed substances similar to or derived from marijuana, known as cannabinoids, can kill pain by disrupting pain signals in the nervous system. The new research is leading to:

 

    * Strategies for manipulating cannabinoids to avoid side effects and crush pain.

    * Advances in the understanding of how cannabinoids work in the nervous system.

 

      In the past, hard experimental evidence showing that cannabinoids could relieve pain didn't exist. Most incidences were anecdotal. Some animal studies implied that the compounds could influence pain, but researchers didn't know if the cannabinoids were targeting the pain system directly or if other effects of the compounds were responsible for the pain relief. Cannabinoids can induce euphoria and a wide variety of behavioral effects, such as changes in attention, deficits in movement and cognitive impairment.

      Many scientists dismissed the subject for years. Then starting in the late 1980s, researchers discovered that a natural cannabinoid system exists in the nervous system. So far, several different natural cannabinoid substances have been found in the brain. They carry out actions by attaching to specific sites on cells, known as cannabinoid receptors. Marijuana derivatives also act at these sites. The findings pushed scientists to weed out the role of cannabinoids in pain relief.

      Recent animal research indicates that cannabinoids stifle pain directly by interfering with pain signals in the nervous system. In one new study, researchers used a special technology to analyze the activity of cells in the rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM). The cells in this brain region increase or decrease our level of pain perception. Cannabinoid substances activated the RVM cells that stop pain signals and inactivated the RVM cells that pump up pain signals.

      While some scientists continue to identify the central areas involved in cannabinoids' pain-stopping effects in the brain, others find that these molecules also can act on the nerves that extend from the spinal cord. For example, researchers discovered that injections of a natural cannabinoid at the site of injury in animal pain models produce pain relief. The researchers suspect that the cannabinoid blocks pain enhancing molecules that are released after an injury and cuts off a nerve pain signal before it reaches the spinal cord.

      Early research also shows that cannabinoids may be effective in treating the painful condition, known as neuropathic pain. Researchers have found that a low dose of a cannabinoid offers relief of neuropathic pain in animal models. The animals, however, also were hit with unwanted effects such as disorientation.

 

The damaged tissues of a burned finger release pain-enhancing substances (1). In addition, pain signals shoot up nerves in the arm to the spinal cord (2). These pain signals register in the pain-sensing areas of the thalamus and cerebral cortex as well as other brain regions involved in pain-related responses such as an increased heart rate and breathing (3). Pain signals also pass to brain areas such as the rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM) where the pain message system can be modified and either shut off or enhanced through signals sent from the RVM to the spinal cord (4). An increasing number of studies suggests that cannabinoids can target the pain signalng system on the "front end" at the site of injury, as well as at certain brain areas, including the RVM.