RESEARCH FINDS ANCIENT LURKING IN DNA
Think your DNA is all human?
This wide range of utility shows both the promise of cannabis chemistry in improving human health and the limitations of our current cannabis-based therapies. CB1 and CB2 are differently expressed in many of these tissues and are activated by different combinations of cannabis compounds. By simply improving our delivery methods and formulations of existing chemistry we can greatly improve the immediate utility of clinical cannabis.
The recent resurgence of medical cannabis provides patients with a wide range product choices. Cannabis growers have developed a huge number of new strains with specific chemical profiles, from extremely high THC to low THC/high CBD combinations. Cannabinol-N (CBN) has also become a highly desired compound (the fused ring variant of cannabinol-D (CBD). Increasing, these compounds are being extracted from cannabis and recombined in specific ratios to create stable, reproducible products.
This product consistency is critical for the medicinal use cannabis. Currently even if a patient does find a strain or product that provides relief from their symptoms they have a very difficult time obtaining identical material. Both academic and industry studies have shown that even well-known cannabis strains vary hugely in chemical profile from sample to sample.
[S. Casano, G. Grassi, V. Martini and M. Michelozzi (2011)
Variations in terpene profiles of different strains of Cannabis sativa L. Acta Horticulturae 925:115-121]
Some of this variation is due to variations in growing conditions; most is due to poor identificatiton and track-and-trace. Regardless, much more data and research is sorely needed on which cannabis compounds provide relief to patient symptoms. Once user-based leads are identified we can then begin to unravel the receptor-based activity of these compounds or mixtures.
Another medical approach that will greatly impact the clinical utility of cannabis compounds is improved delivery methods. Currently, most patients self-administer cannabis systemically through inhalation or ingestion. While these methods do provide benefits and relief from many symptoms, other cannabis applications are possible. Topical applications have shown great benefits for skin diseases; transmucosal absorption is highly useful for certain patients; rectal absorption produces physical symptom relief without intoxication, as does the use of THC-A rather than THC. Not only do these application methods produce different physiological effects, they also distribute very differently through tissues. This understanding and improving the tissue specificity and bioavailability of cannabis is yet another obvious step in clinical development that we are just beginning to take.
The medicinal value of cannabis is about to take a huge leap forward. So much of the research and development that needs to be done is highly feasible; our understanding of molecular biology and our biotechnology tools have come a very, very long way since 1970 (when cannabis was declared a schedule I drug). As we apply new scientific, computational and epidemiological tools to this field we will only expand the uses and benefits of cannabis.
Adam D. Richardson, Chief Scientific Officer
Aegis Biotech | [email protected]
Dr. Adam is an analytical chemist with over 20 years of experience
in the natural products and biomedical research fields. He brings
his passion for natural product therapeutics and expertise in
biomedical research to AEGIS to help develop cannabis-based
products for cancer, epilepsy, and other diseases.
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