Cannabis-based drugs can offer hope to those with inflammatory bowel disease

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Experiments on tissue from the gut suggest that drugs containing cannabis components may be effective in bowel disease.
Cannabis is said to have various medical uses and, indeed, a cannabis-based remedy has been developed for multiple sclerosis. Now researchers at the University of Bath, England, reveal how the active ingredients of cannabis might also be useful for relieving Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis - known together as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

The studied tissue samples from the gut of healthy people and those with IBD, looking at the presence of two cannabis receptors - CB1 and CB2. These molecules are activated by the active components of cannabis. The presence of CB2 was found to increase in IBD while CB1 is more prominent in a healthy gut. The presence of CB2 may imply a suppression of the immune system which is found in inflammatory disease. It implies that drugs based upon cannabis might be able to normalize the CB1/CB2 balance in the gut and so relieve the symptoms of IBD.

Source
Gastroenterology 1st August 2005

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