Today, I would like to tell you an encouraging news, a wonderful discovery to help many patients, worldwide.
Effectivelly, researchers at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and the Institute of Health Research “San Carlos”, have found that the main active component of cannabis, THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol), is capable of killing tumor cells, through the mechanism of 'cell recycling' or autophagy.
Marijuana plant
In fact, this process, with which the cell degrades and recycles its components, has earned him the Nobel Prize, for Medicine 2016, to one of its discoverers, Yoshinori Ohsumi.
"We have identified one of the factors that determines that activation of autophagy leads to the death of tumor cells", has explained the researcher at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and lead author of the work, Guillermo Velasco.
To perform the study, published in 'Autophagy', the scientists have used a cell culture of glioma (a very aggressive brain tumor) and they have subjected them to two treatments separately: lack of nutrients and supply of THC. Previous studies, they had already shown that, in both cases, the cell is induced to initiate the process of autophagy, although two different ways.
Specifically, the lack of nutrients increases the protective autophagy, which occurs when cells activate it to digest the complex cellular components and get the necessary energy to adapt to this situation of fast itself. In this sense, in the case of THC, what it increases is a more destructive autophagy.
In comparing the changes, occurring in the cells, after the absence of nutrients or supply cannabinoid, the scientists have found that single treatment, with THC, increased levels of some lipid (dihidroceramidas) that eventually triggered death the cell.
"The study shows that increase, in levels of some dihidroceramidas, has a destabilizing character for cell organelles, involved in the degradation of cellular components, leading, ultimately, to the death of tumor cells", Velasco has noted.
In the same way, the work has also shown, in studies in vitro and generated tumors in mice, that manipulation of levels of these lipids can be a strategy to activate an autophagy leading to death of tumor cells, reducing tumor growth.
"These observations may help lay the foundation for the development of new cancer therapies based on the activation of death through autophagy", the scientist has claimed, to comment that, at the same time, the study helps to understand the mechanism action of cannabinoids, into tumor cells, a field of study, that the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the UCM has spent over a decade working.
At the work, he has also counted on the participation of experts from the Institute of Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia, the Institute of Biophysics (UPV / EHU-CSIC), the University of the Basque Country, the Danish Cancer Society Research Center (Denmark), the University of Newcastle (UK), the Center for Biological Research (CSIC), the University of Sunderland (UK), the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (Japan) and the CIBERNED.
Well, I hope this project follows being developed, to cure may people, all over the world.
I also hope that you have liked this article.
Until my next post, kind regards,
Luis.
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