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Cannabinoid Agonist Significantly Increases ALS Life Span, Study Says

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Cannabinoid Agonist Significantly Increases ALS Life Span, Study Says

Little Rock, AR: Administration of the selective cannabinoid agonist AM-1241 significantly increases the survival of mice with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and may ultimately lead to the development of new cannabis-based medications to treat the disease in humans, according to preclinical findings to be published in the Journal of Neurochemistry.

Investigators at the University of Arkansas, College of Medicine, reported that mice administered high daily doses of AM-1241 after ALS symptom onset lived up to 56 percent longer than controls.

"[T]he magnitude of effect produced by AM-1241 initiated at symptom onset rivals the best yet reported for any pharmaceutical agent, even those given pre-symptomatically," authors wrote. "[The] findings from this study indicate that [cannabinoid] agonists may ultimately be developed as novel therapeutic drugs that can be administered alone or in combination with other agents at symptom onset for the treatment of ALS in human patients."

Previous studies with THC report that it delays motor impairment and increases survival in animal models of ALS at rates slightly less than those obtained by the administration of low doses of AM-1241.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by the selective loss of motor neurons in the spinal cord, brain stem, and motor cortex. An estimated 30,000 Americans are living with ALS, which often arises spontaneously and afflicts otherwise healthy adults. More than half of ALS patients die within 2.5 years following the onset of symptoms.

Currently, no effective pharmaceutical medications exist to stave ALS progression.

Some investigators speculate that the endocannabinoid receptor system may protect against certain neurodegenerative disorders like ALS by exhibiting neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory actions to combat disease symptoms.

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I thought this might be appreciated here, close if its not relevant.
 
this is one of the selective CB-2 non fun cannabinoids. pharma are very much into selective non fun cannabioids
 
(1) Schedule I. -

(A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.

(B) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

(C) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.
 
StagnantReaction said:
(1) Schedule I. -

(A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.

(B) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

(C) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

why would the substance above be schedule 1? as a CB-2 agonist it has little if any potential for abuse
 
Aren't there some CB1 agonists used to stimulate appetite? Those would be fun (as a side effect of course).
 
this is one of the selective CB-2 non fun cannabinoids. pharma are very much into selective non fun cannabioids
So you think they would intentionally ignore CB1 just to keep people from having fun?
 
protovack said:
So you think they would intentionally ignore CB1 just to keep people from having fun?

in a word yes. the money is in cannabinoids devoid of euphoric and other enjoyable side effects, so they have tended to concentrate on CB-2 agonists and non centrally acting cannabinoids.
the FDA has issued a circular stating that THC like cannabinoids (by inference CB-1) would be schedule 1 until medical utility was shown, the costs and implications of carrying out a trial etc under sch 1 conditions is prohibitive. I am aware of several promising CB-1 agonists which have been dropped due this and the small potential market for these compounds.
big pharma goes where the money is, nothing more macheavellian than that.
 
vecktor said:
the FDA has issued a circular stating that THC like cannabinoids (by inference CB-1) would be schedule 1 until medical utility was shown

Do you have a reference for that? Not that i don't believe you, but thats the first instance i've ever heard of an entire class of compounds being made schedule 1 on the basis of their pharmacological profile...would that include CB1 agonists that aren't structurally derived from THC, like WIN55212-2 for instance?

Scary precedent, the logical next step would be to declare all 5HT2A agonists schedule 1 drugs as none of them have currently accepted medical uses either...
 
mad_scientist said:
Do you have a reference for that? Not that i don't believe you, but thats the first instance i've ever heard of an entire class of compounds being made schedule 1 on the basis of their pharmacological profile...would that include CB1 agonists that aren't structurally derived from THC, like WIN55212-2 for instance?

Scary precedent, the logical next step would be to declare all 5HT2A agonists schedule 1 drugs as none of them have currently accepted medical uses either...

I will post the info when I get time, my understanding is that non classical cannabinoids such as the indolealkylamine would escape scheduling until the trials showed that they had effects similar to THC and therefore abuse potential.
 
They should REALLY try these sort of drugs out for IBD such as Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Every IBD patient will tell you how good marijuana is for the condition.
 
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