New Drug Kills Pain by Boosting Body's Naturally Occurring Marijuana-Like Compound

By Rebecca Boyle Posted 09.20.2010 at 10:02 am 5 Comments

Medical Marijuana If only all medicines had such fun names. Wikimedia Commons

In a boon for pain research, American and Italian scientists say they have found a new drug that allows a marijuana-like substance to control pain at a specific site in the body. Their study suggests cannabinoid compounds could be used in new pain medications that are non-addictive and non-sedative, unlike opiates.

The drug works by blocking an enzyme that degrades a compound called anandamide, whose name comes from the Sanskrit word for “bliss.” Anandamide exists naturally in humans and is chemically similar to THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. It was thought to work only in the brain, but with the new drug, URB937, anandamide works in peripheral tissues, too.

Led by Daniele Piomelli, director of the Center for Drug Discovery at the University of California-Irvine, teams from the Italian universities of Urbino and Parma gave the URB937 drug to rats and mice. It suppresses an enzyme called FAAH, which boosts the amount of anandamide. It doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier, but it still does lessen pain at the site of an injury, the researchers say.

Anandamide is part of the endocannabinoid system, which is involved in modulating appetite, pain, mood and memory. (The name is derived from the system’s involvement in responding to THC.) Blocking FAAH can have the same pain-mitigation effects without generating a marijuana high, according to a UC-Irvine news release.

Only a handful of states allow marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes, one of which is modulating pain. So a drug that enhances the body’s natural cannabinoid compounds could be helpful for millions of patients.

Or they could just move to Denver.

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5 Comments

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Delkomatic

09/21/10 at 8:20 am

First of all marijuana is not addictive never has been its myth put out there to scare people away from it and to make parents scared and to get them to vote NO. It has been proven time and time again through the years that Alcohol abuse is actually worse than any Marijuana abuse. I am not saying i agree with abunch of kids sitting around getting high for the hell of it but this needs to be legal for medical use period. Patients that have chronic pain and patients with cancel and such marijuana can make them actually feel at ease and give them an appetite and make there life easier and in some cases even worth liveing and happy. If you are really against that then well you need to look in the mirror and realize you are a peice of sh""" and if you got that one friend that died cuz your one friend or family was high sorry about your luck cuz your other one friend was not smart enough or your one friend or family member got hit in a car accident by someone else that was high that is unfortunate by why make 100's of people suffer for another iditos mistakes. I bet you get drunk every weekend and have no problem with. Stop being a self rightous prick and vote yes and let these people that need medical marijuana to live better lives such as cancer patients live those lives!

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russell1047

09/21/10 at 10:24 am

They never said it was. Read it next time. Marijuana is not an opiate. Get your facts straight before you start ranting about something that's already happening no thanks to you.

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garthog42

09/21/10 at 12:36 pm

Well I can tell you all from personal experience when I had a mouth full of abcessed teeth I was drinking a fifth of rum everythree days to kill the pain so I could work. A friend told me about marijuana I tried it and it worked in fact the dosage was less than 1/10 of a gram daily and it apparently does have a time release effect on pain. I was able to continue to do my job succsessfully until I was able to get my teeth removed. After my teeth were removed I ceased to use the medication. If I were able to use it instead of tylenol for something as simple as a headache I would. I am glad they are finally researching it.
Man made Alchohol God made marijuana...who do you trust?

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Dustin2127

09/22/10 at 9:59 pm

All drugs should be legal. If you screw up your life by abuse, its your own damn fault. The war on drugs mentality has gone on for far too long.

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twobrain

09/28/10 at 3:35 am

Gee who would of thunk a drug produced in the brain to suppress pain would suppress it in the nerves elsewhere in the body. What a novel concept.

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