iScience: Reveals the molecular mechanisms that use cannabinin to suppress colon cancer.

September 16, 2020 // -- Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are caused by excessive inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, which often results in high-risk colorectal cancer; Scientists at the agency have found that a treatment based on THC, a cannabinol-based treatment that inhibits colon cancer in mice, is a cannabinol found in cannabis plants, and that THC can also inhibit colon inflammation to prevent the emergence of early-stage cancers induced by carcinogens.
Photo Source: Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0 Previously researchers studied the effects of a variety of plants, including cannabis plants, on inflammation in the body, and now the global rate of inflammatory bowel disease is increasing, suggesting that the risk of cancer associated with inflammatory bowel disease is also increasing. The risk of colon and rectal cancer is increasing at an alarming rate among young and middle-income people in the United States, and the reasons behind it are not yet clear to researchers, so understanding the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease and developing effective drugs to suppress inflammatory bowel disease and its associated cancers are critical to improving the quality of life of patients. 'We found that THC therapy may inhibit colon inflammation while also inhibiting colon cancer, which may support the idea that inflammation is closely related to colon cancer, so THC or other anti-inflammatory preparations are very beneficial in patient groups at higher risk of colon cancer,' said
researcher Dr. Prakash Nagarkatti.
researcher Nagarkatti is known around the world for studying cannabinin, which works through two receptors called CB1 and CB2, which are expressed in the brain, while activation of THC induces a psychoactive effect, while a second receptor called CB2 is expressed primarily on immune cells, meaning that activation of CB2 receptors does not induce psychoactivity.
The researchers concluded that the results of this paper suggest that THC may be able to function through CB2 subjects, which may be exciting for researchers, meaning that compounds that activate CB2 and do not induce inactive effects may have beneficial effects on inhibiting the occurrence of inflammatory bowel disease and its colon cancer.
original source: William Becker et al, Activation of Cannabinoid Receptor 2 Prevents Colitis-Associated Colon Cancer via Myeloid Cell De-Activation Upstream of IL-22 Production, iScience (2020). DOI:10.1016/j.isci.2020.101504.