Can/Psych 2 Larry Minikes Can/Psych 2 Larry Minikes

Cannabis ingredient can help cancer patients regain their appetites and sense of taste

February 25, 2011

Science Daily/Oxford University Press (OUP)

The active ingredient in cannabis can improve the appetites and sense of taste in cancer patients, according to a new study published online in the cancer journal, Annals of Oncology.

 

Loss of appetite is common among cancer patients, either because the cancer itself or its treatment affects the sense of taste and smell, leading to decreased enjoyment of food. This, in turn, can lead to weight loss, anorexia, a worse quality of life and decreased survival; therefore, finding effective ways of helping patients to maintain a good diet and consume enough calories is an important aspect of their treatment.

 

Researchers in Canada ran a small pilot study from May 2006 to December 2008in 21 adult patients with any advanced cancer (except brain cancer) who had been eating less as a result of their illness for two weeks or more. All were either being treated with chemotherapy or had been in the past. The patients were randomly assigned to receive medication from a pharmacist in a double-blind manner, which meant that neither the patients nor the doctors knew which treatment they were receiving. Eleven patients received oral capsules containing delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) -- the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis -- and eight patients were assigned to the control group to receive placebo capsules. The active capsules contained 2.5mg of THC and the patients took them once a day for the first three days, twice a day thereafter, and they had the option to increase their dose up to a maximum of 20mg a day if they wished; however, most followed the dosing protocol, with three patients in both groups increasing their dose to three times a day. The treatment ran for 18 days.

 

From patient answers to questionnaires conducted before, during and at the end of the trial, the researchers found that the majority (73%) of THC-treated patients reported an increased overall appreciation of food compared with patients receiving placebo (30%) and more often stated that study medication "made food taste better" (55%) compared with placebo (10%).

 

The majority of THC-treated patients (64%) had increased appetite, three patients (27%) showed no change, and one patient's data was incomplete. No THC-treated patients showed a decrease in appetite. By contrast, the majority of patients receiving placebo had either decreased appetite (50%) or showed no change (20%).

 

Although there was no difference in the total number of calories consumed by both groups, the THC-treated patients tended to increase the proportion of protein that they ate, and 55% reported that savoury foods tasted better, whereas no patients in the placebo group reported an increased liking for these foods. (Cancer patients often find that meat smells and tastes unpleasant and, therefore, they eat less of it).

 

In addition, THC-treated patients reported better quality of sleep and relaxation than in the placebo group.

 

Dr Wendy Wismer (PhD), associate professor at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada), who led the study, said: "This is the first randomised controlled trial to show that THC makes food taste better and improves appetites for patients with advanced cancer, as well as helping them to sleep and to relax better. Our findings are important, as there is no accepted treatment for chemosensory alterations experienced by cancer patients. We are excited about the possibilities that THC could be used to improve patients' enjoyment of food.

 

"Decreased appetite and chemosensory alterations can be caused by both cancer and its treatment; untreated tumours cause loss of appetite, and by itself, chemotherapy also causes loss of appetite. In any individual patient, some part of both of these effects is usually present.

 

"It's very important to address these problems as both appetite loss and alterations to taste and smell lead to involuntary weight loss and reduce an individual's ability to tolerate treatment and to stay healthy in general. Additionally, the social enjoyment of eating is greatly reduced and quality of life is affected. For a long time everyone has thought that nothing could be done about this. Indeed, cancer patients are often told to 'cope' with chemosensory problems by eating bland, cold and odourless food. This may well have the result of reducing food intake and food enjoyment."

 

The researchers say that larger, phase II trials should test their findings further, but, in the meantime Dr Wismer thinks that doctors could consider THC treatment for cancer patients. "It could be investigated for any stage of cancer where taste and smell dysfunction and appetite loss has been indicated by the patient," she said. In addition, treatment would not necessarily have to be limited to the 18 days of the study. "Long term therapy with cannabinoids is possible, however, in each case this would be up to the patient's physician to determine."

 

Although the study was unable to show that THC treatment could increase total calorie intake, Dr Wismer said this was unsurprising. "In the healthy adult population, we know from personal experience that we usually eat more of something if it tastes better. However, in this advanced cancer population, there is a real struggle with appetite; normal appetitive pathways do not seem to be functioning. We know from our earlier work that individuals with advanced cancer have diminished appetite and have to make a big conscious effort to eat; they are motivated to eat simply to survive. So, although THC did not significantly increase total calorie intake, the fact that it improved appetite and protein intake is important."

 

This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Alberta Cancer Board, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110222192830.htm

Read More
Can/Psych 2 Larry Minikes Can/Psych 2 Larry Minikes

Enhanced sweet taste: Endocannabinoids act directly on tongue taste receptors

December 23, 2009

Science Daily/Monell Chemical Senses Center

New findings from the Monell Center and Kyushu University in Japan report that endocannabinoids act directly on taste receptors on the tongue to enhance sweet taste.

 

"Our taste cells may be more involved in regulating our appetites than we had previously known," said study author Robert Margolskee, M.D., Ph.D., a Monell molecular biologist. "Better understanding of the driving forces for eating and overeating could lead to interventions to stem the burgeoning rise in obesity and related diseases."

 

Endocannabinoids are substances similar to THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. Produced in the brain and body, they bind with cannabinoid receptors to help regulate appetite and many other processes involved in health and disease.

 

"Endocannabinoids both act in the brain to increase appetite and also modulate taste receptors on the tongue to increase the response to sweets," said study senior author Yuzo Ninomiya, Ph.D., Professor of Oral Neuroscience in the Graduate School of Dental Sciences at Kyushu University in Japan.

 

In the study, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers conducted a series of experiments in mice to determine the behavioral, neural and cellular responses to sweet taste stimuli before and after the administration of endocannabinoids.

 

Sweet taste responses were enhanced by endocannabinoids in every case. The effect was specific for sweet taste, as endocannibinoids had no effect on responses to sour, salty, bitter or umami taste stimuli.

 

The effects were abolished when the experiments were repeated using knockout mice lacking the CB1 cannabinoid receptor. Additional studies revealed that the CB1 receptor and the T1R3 sweet taste receptor are present in the same taste cells.

 

Together, the experiments demonstrate that endocannabinoids selectively enhance sweet taste by acting on tongue taste cells and that the effect is mediated by the endocannabinoid receptor.

 

"Modulation of sweet taste responses may be an important component of the endocannabinoid system's role in regulating feeding behavior," said Margolskee. He parenthetically noted that the well-known "marijuana munchies" may depend at least in part on endocannabinoid stimulation of tongue taste cells.

 

Sweet taste receptors also are found in the intestine and pancreas, where they help regulate nutrient absorption, insulin secretion and energy metabolism. If endocannibinoids also modulate the responses of pancreatic and intestinal sweet receptors, the findings may open doors to the development of novel therapeutic compounds to combat metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.

 

Also contributing to the study were Ryusuke Yoshida, Tadahiro Ohkuri, Masafumi Jyotaki, Toshiaki Yasuo, Nao Horio, Keiko Yasumatsu, Keisuke Sanematsu, Noriatsu Shigemura, Yuzo Ninomiya from Kyushu University and Tsuneyuki Yamamoto from Nagasaki International University.

 

The research was funded by grants from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091222104920.htm

Read More
Can/Psych 1 Larry Minikes Can/Psych 1 Larry Minikes

Weeding Out the Highs of Medical Marijuana

July 15, 2008

Science Daily/University of Manchester

Research exploring new ways of exploiting the full medicinal uses of cannabis while avoiding unwanted side-effects will be presented to pharmacologists on July 15 by scientists attending the Federation of European Pharmacological Societies Congress, EPHAR 2008.

 

Cannabis is a source of compounds known as cannabinoids, one of which, THC -- the main chemical responsible for the 'high' -- has long been licensed as a medicine for suppressing nausea produced by chemotherapy and for stimulating appetite, for instance, in AIDS patients.

 

More recently, the cannabis-based medicine Sativex was licensed both for the symptomatic relief of neuropathic pain in adults with multiple sclerosis and as an adjunctive analgesic treatment for adult patients with advanced cancer. Sativex contains approximately equal amounts of THC and the non-psychoactive plant cannabinoid, cannabidiol.

 

"THC works by targeting molecules in our bodies called cannabinoid receptors" said Roger Pertwee, Professor of Neuropharmacology at the University of Aberdeen, who is co-chairing the cannabis symposium.

 

"So some current research is focused on designing drugs that only target cannabinoid receptors in the part of the body relevant to the disease in question and not the receptors in the central nervous system involved in the unwanted effects of cannabis."

 

A further approach to avoiding the psychoactivity caused by THC involves harnessing the body's own cannabis, called 'endocannabinoids'.

 

"We don't have cannabinoid receptors just in case we come into contact with plant-derived chemicals that activate them but rather because we have our own molecules that do this," said Christopher Fowler, Professor of Pharmacology at Umea University, in Sweden, and co-chair of the meeting.

 

"The neat thing about endocannabinoids is that they are often produced only when we need them, such as when our bodies are damaged in some way; pain, for example, leads to a release of endocannabinoids in a region of the brain that is involved with pain control.

 

"The problem with this natural protective 'endocannabinoid system' is that it is too short-lived to be of great benefit -- enzymes in our bodies quickly breakdown or metabolise the endocannabinoids negating their effect. It's a bit like a bathtub without a plug -- the water is turned on but rapidly disappears down the plughole. This suggests an immediate target: block the plughole and the water will stay longer.

 

"Since the release of endocannabinoids is local, levels in other parts of the brain, stay low. This approach is under intense investigation and programmes for the development of new drugs targeting pain and possibly other disorders such as anxiety and depression are currently underway."

 

Speakers will report on promising studies that show improved strategies for targeting the endocannabinoid system, not only for pain relief, but also for treating other conditions, including stroke, liver diseases and, ironically, nicotine addiction and obesity.

 

Thus, as the conference will hear, there are some disorders in which endocannabinoid release appears to be detrimental to our health, one example being obesity, which can be treated with Acomplia*, a licensed synthetic medicine that acts by blocking cannabinoid receptors.

 

Professor Pertwee added: "THC in cannabis is of course well known for its ability to induce 'the munchies' and, as mentioned, is used in clinics to boost appetite. But my research group has discovered that another constituent of cannabis, THCV, acts in a similar way to Acomplia, blocking one of the cannabinoid receptors, so providing an alternative -- and potentially better -- treatment route in the fight against obesity.

 

"The conference will hear about some of the possible advantages THVC has over current obesity treatments, as well as data on the potential of cannabinoids to treat other conditions, including neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease."

 

*Acomplia has been a licensed medicine for obesity in the UK and Europe for about two years and was accepted by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) on June 28, 2008.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080714192555.htm

Read More