Cannabinoids - Antidepressant And Inflammatory Bowel Disease Treatment

This news article discusses both the treatments of giving Cannabinoids for depression and inflammatory bowel disease.

Cannabis and Cannabinoids:

Cannabinoids is a chemical compound found in Cannabis. Cannabinoids are an exciting new area for medical research, but it is important to recognize that there are over 60 active ingredients in cannabis and synthetic cannabinoid may be showing evidence of nerve regeneration.

Antidepressant drug:

Researchers from Canada's University of Sasketchewan suggest the compound causes nerve cells to regenerate. The study was undergone in rat models, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The rats were given various high level dosages of artificial cannabinoid HU210 for a month and were found that the animals have nerve cell regeneration in their hippocampus. The rats found to be less anxious, and more willing to eat food in new.

The Canadian team said: "These complicated effects of high and low doses of acute and chronic exposure to Cannabinoids may explain the seemingly conflicting results observed in clinical studies regarding the effects of cannabinoid on anxiety and depression."

Risks and contradictions:

Earlier reports have shown the drug cannabis to cause long-term damage to mental health, and to increase the risk of mental illness in those who are already genetically susceptible. It is also found to cause anxiety and depression in rats and mice models respectively.

Professor Robin Murray, of the Institute of Psychiatry, questioned whether the anti-anxiety and antidepressant effects seen in the animals would be replicated in humans. Paul Corry, Director of campaigns and communication at Rethink said" But as also pointed out in this study, the effects of cannabis on the brain are complex and produce conflicting evidence.

Cannabinoids drug for inflammatory bowel

Researchers from the University of Bath, UK has found that Cannabinoids derived from Cannabis has found to be effective in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. "The system that responds to cannabis in the brain is present and functioning in the lining of the gut," lead researcher Dr. Karen Wright, of the University of Bath, explained to Reuters Health. "There is an increased presence of one component of this system during inflammatory bowel diseases," she explained.

The report of the study was published in the Journal of Gastroenterology in which she has explained the location of CB1 and CB2 receptors in human colon tissue which binds to the Cannabinoid. She has used Human colon cell lines to establish the binding of the cannabinoid compounds and in her wound healing experiments.

Increased CB2 receptors are found in colonic tissue characteristic of inflammatory bowel disease. They found that the Cannabinoids helps in wound healing of the surface by CB1 related receptor mechanism.

"Cannabinoids, which we make ourselves, as well as synthetic Cannabinoids, can promote wound healing in the gut, which is extremely interesting given that inflammatory bowel disease involves damaged gut linings," Wright said.

Source: The Journal of Gastroenterology, Journal of Clinical Investigation