Interesting:
We may finally know why marijuana helps people with chronic gut problems
/www.popsci.com/inflammatory-bowel-cannabisBeth McCormick of the University of Massachusetts has been studying the role these cells play in regulating the gut microbiome for well over a decade, and the starting point for this current research was her prior discovery of a chemical pathway by which epithelial cells help neutrophils, a kind of white blood cell, to cross into the gut and eat up some of the microbes. But that was clearly only half of the answer. In order to produce balance, something else had to stop too many neutrophils from getting in and killing peaceful microbes and even the gut itself—leading to IBD.
The answer, reported in the new study out Monday in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, is a different pathway, also in the epithelial cells of the gut lining. That chemical pathway produces substances that prevent neutrophils from getting through the epithelial cells and into the gut. And it turns out those substances, in mice at least, are endocannabinoids. These fatty substances bind to the same chemical receptors as the cannabinoids found in, well, cannabis. Patients missing this secondary pathway “were more likely to develop ulcerative colitis,” McCormick says.
Although the current research is in mice, it points to a possible result in humans as well. It would help explain why cannabinoids seem to provide relief for people with IBD, because they perform basically the same regulatory function as the endocannabinoids would if the body were producing them itself. More research, of course, is needed, but McCormick says it
opens up the possibility of creating new IBD treatments that work on the new pathway—including, perhaps, therapeutic agents extracted from marijuana.
Oh and for those who like the more dry scientific journal entries (not-gated):
Intestinal P-glycoprotein exports endocannabinoids to prevent inflammation and maintain homeostasis
/www.jci.org/articles/view/96817