California Scientists Say Marijuana Compound Cures Cancer

Sarah Dee

The Huffington Post reports that two researchers in San Francisco, California have made the astonishing discovery that the compound calledcannabidiol, or CBD, extracted from the marijuana plant, could help stop the spread of cancer.

Cancer is spread by genes called ID-1’s and when Pierre Desprez and Sean McAllister combined their research knowledge they also combined cannabidiol with these killer ID-1 cells in a petri dish and this is what they found:

“What we found was that his Cannabidiol could essentially ‘turn off’ the ID-1,” Desprez told HuffPost.

The cells stopped spreading and returned to normal (1).”

If these findings are as promising as they seem it would mean people all over the world who are afflicted with cancer could have hope for a cure.

Studies in laboratories and on animals have shown similar results and now Desprez and McAllister are eager for human clinical trials to begin. These trials are still waiting on approval.

The pair of scientists first posted a paper on the subject back in 2007 and here are a few telling excerpts from the abstract (1):

“Here, we report that cannabidiol (CBD), a cannabinoid with a low-toxicity profile, could down-regulate Id-1 ｅxpression in aggressive human breast cancer cells (2).”

“In conclusion, CBD represents the first nontoxic exogenous agent that can significantly decrease Id-1 ｅxpression in metastatic breast cancer cells leading to the down-regulation of tumor aggressiveness (2).”

When considering the progress that could have been made into CBD cancer-cure research in the six years since this paper was published it is rather disheartening.

Many people have been diagnosed since then, but the outlook thanks to this discovery is hopeful and the research that has been done points to a cure for this devastating illness.

“We started by researching breast cancer,” said Desprez.

“But now we’ve found that Cannabidiol works with many kinds of aggressive cancers–brain, prostate–any kind in which these high levels of ID-1 are present.”

Desprez hopes that clinical trials will begin immediately (1).”

Certainly cancer patients would agree, in light of this promising research. If marijuana were legal in all fifty states it would cut through the red tape that has been impeding research into this field for years.

Colorado and Washington will have to take the lead on the front of cannabis-based cancer-cure research for now, or until the human clinical trials are approved in California.

Sources:

(1) Wilkey, R. (2012, September 19). Marijuana and cancer: Scientists find cannabis compound stops metastasis in agressive cancers. The Huffington Post.

(2) McAllister, S. D., Christian, R. T., Horowitz, M. P., Garcia, A., & Desprez, P. Y. (2007). Cannabidiol as a novel inhibitor of id-1 gene ｅxpression in aggressive breast cancer cells. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, 6(11), 2921-7

This article first appeared at The Intel Hub.

http://networkedblogs.com/IdBPE