cannabisnews.com: MJ Like Chemicals Inhibit HIV in Late-State AIDS
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MJ Like Chemicals Inhibit HIV in Late-State AIDS
Posted by CN Staff on March 21, 2012 at 13:12:49 PT
Press Release
Source: Science Daily
USA -- Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers have discovered that marijuana-like chemicals trigger receptors on human immune cells that can directly inhibit a type of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) found in late-stage AIDS, according to new findings published online in the journal PLoS ONE.Medical marijuana is prescribed to treat pain, debilitating weight loss and appetite suppression, side effects that are common in advanced AIDS. This is the first study to reveal how the marijuana receptors found on immune cells -- called cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 -- can influence the spread of the virus. Understanding the effect of these receptors on the virus could help scientists develop new drugs to slow the progression of AIDS.
"We knew that cannabinoid drugs like marijuana can have a therapeutic effect in AIDS patients, but did not understand how they influence the spread of the virus itself," said study author Cristina Costantino, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "We wanted to explore cannabinoid receptors as a target for pharmaceutical interventions that treat the symptoms of late-stage AIDS and prevent further progression of the disease without the undesirable side effects of medical marijuana." HIV infects active immune cells that carry the viral receptor CD4, which makes these cells unable to fight off the infection. In order to spread, the virus requires that "resting" immune cells be activated. In advanced AIDS, HIV mutates so it can infect these resting cells, gaining entry into the cell by using a signaling receptor called CXCR4. By treating the cells with a cannabinoid agonist that triggers CB2, Dr. Costantino and the Mount Sinai team found that CB2 blocked the signaling process, and suppressed infection in resting immune cells. Triggering CB1 causes the drug high associated with marijuana, making it undesirable for physicians to prescribe. The researchers wanted to explore therapies that would target CB2 only. The Mount Sinai team infected healthy immune cells with HIV, then treated them with a chemical that triggers CB2 called an agonist. They found that the drug reduced the infection of the remaining cells. "Developing a drug that triggers only CB2 as an adjunctive treatment to standard antiviral medication may help alleviate the symptoms of late-stage AIDS and prevent the virus from spreading," said Dr. Costantino. Because HIV does not use CXCR4 to enhance immune cell infection in the early stages of infection, CB2 agonists appear to be an effective antiviral drug only in late-stage disease. As a result of this discovery, the research team led by Benjamin Chen, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases, and Lakshmi Devi, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, plans to develop a mouse model of late-stage AIDS in order to test the efficacy of a drug that triggers CB2 in vivo. In 2009 Dr. Chen was part of a team that captured on video for the first time the transfer of HIV from infected T-cells to uninfected T-cells. Funding for this study was provided to Drs. Chen and Devi by the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Costantino is supported by a National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award grant awarded to Mount Sinai School of Medicine.Source: Science Daily (MD)Published: March 20, 2012Copyright: 2012 ScienceDaily MagazineContact: : editor sciencedaily.comWebsite: http://www.sciencedaily.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/pdLujZN8CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
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Comment #6 posted by runruff on March 25, 2012 at 06:38:08 PT
At least one quart of scotch per day!
Alexander Haig and many Nixon staff have noted that Mr. Nixon started his day with a water glass full of GlenLivet Scotch. He drank all day and consumed at least one quart sometimes more.He once stated publicly that he was not a crook! I say he was so stewed 24/7 that he didn't know who he was or had the mental facility to ever distinguish right from wrong!Old timers used to say that the Devil is in the bottle. That is close to correct. Alcohol numbs the centers of the brain that respond to things like religion, empathy, sympathy, spiritual connections and conscience. Nixon, by keeping his brain numb is a perfect example of this.Often times I have read or heard about the meanest, most awful people are sobered up and after a long healing process where the brain opens up, parts re channelling to reconnect the whole. The person will become more sensitive, spiritual, and even more trusted to tell the truth. 
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Comment #5 posted by observer on March 24, 2012 at 19:52:46 PT
The Drug High
re: "Triggering CB1 causes the drug high associated with marijuana, making it undesirable for physicians to prescribe."That's the mantra.Because (everyone just knows) that "the drug high" is evil is is killing our youth. It is sinful. Sin. Wickedness. That's what's the drug "high" is all about. Coinfused? Then let Richard Nixon explain this.
Nixon: "Drinking is a different thing in a sense. Uh, Linkletter's point I think is well taken, he says, 'A person may drink to have a good time' -"Yes Man: "Mm-hmm"Nixon: "-- but a person does not drink simply for the purpose of getting high. You take drugs for the purpose of getting high."Yes Man: "Yep, yep."
 http://www.csdp.org/research/nixonpot.txt See the difference? Yes sir. Richard Nixon, he still calls the shots, or at least internalized little copies of Nixon, dancing in the heads of well-bought policymakers. This little Nixon (in prohibitionists' heads) endlessly repeats: "Getting High!" "All out war on marijuana!" "Getting High!" "Marijuana is public enemy number one!" "I'm not a crook!" 
http://drugnewsbot.,org
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Comment #4 posted by bobzimway on March 21, 2012 at 20:42:05 PT:
police state meds
I think if some enterprise produces cannabinoid medicines under official sanctions, then the legal weed movement will benefit from this implied endorsement of MM's healing qualities.
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Comment #3 posted by Canis420 on March 21, 2012 at 16:36:45 PT:
Pro/con legalization debate in Colorado
This is a great article/debate...and the poll is off the charts in favor of legality. It gives a chance to vote pre-debate and post debate to see if it changed any minds. The pro side only touches on the reasons for legalization...there are many more. The con debate is the same ole crap. it does, however, present links to the studies which support the deleterious effects it mentions.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/19/should-marijuana-be-legal_n_1365036.html
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on March 21, 2012 at 14:31:50 PT
museman
Amen! 
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Comment #1 posted by museman on March 21, 2012 at 13:53:42 PT
so... 
We have cannabis.So do we need to have all this waste of time, words, and 'scientific' experimentation to prove what is already known? What in fact has been known for thousands of years?No we need an 'marijuana like' substance that does the same thing, but isn't pot.Something that can only be synthesized in a lab, and therefore completely controlled by pharmaceutical companies and their wealthy corporate owners -who are wealthy corporate owners of everything-One more chemical to poison the population with, and claim some kind of 'moral compromise' with the numerous claims of cannabis benevolence.It is good that there is a natural herb to help fight the CREATED HIV virus, and no one who is really familiar with the plant -not as some kind of clinical 'research' but actual experience- is surprised by any of the numerous revelations of cannabis that have emerged in our knowledge data base over the past decade.That is good news. But I submit that if cannabis wasn't prohibited all this "research" would be common knowledge by now.LEGALIZE FREEDOM
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