Harvard: Marijuana Cuts Tumor Growth by 50%

Prevent Disease

The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.

They say this is the first set of experiments to show that the compound, Delta-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), inhibits EGF-induced growth and migration in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expressing non-small cell lung cancer cell lines. Lung cancers that over-express EGFR are usually highly aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy.

THC that targets cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 is similar in function to endocannabinoids, which are cannabinoids that are naturally produced in the body and activate these receptors. The researchers suggest that THC or other designer agents that activate these receptors might be used in a targeted fashion to treat lung cancer.


"The beauty of this study is that we are showing that a substance of abuse, if used prudently, may offer a new road to therapy against lung cancer," said Anju Preet, Ph.D., a researcher in the Division of Experimental Medicine.

Acting through cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2, endocannabinoids (as well as THC) are thought to play a role in variety of biological functions, including pain and anxiety control, and inflammation. Although a medical derivative of THC, known as Marinol, has been approved for use as an appetite stimulant for cancer patients, and a small number of U.S. states allow use of medical marijuana to treat the same side effect, few studies have shown that THC might have anti-tumor activity, Preet says. The only clinical trial testing THC as a treatment against cancer growth was a recently completed British pilot study in human glioblastoma.

In the present study, the researchers first demonstrated that two different lung cancer cell lines as well as patient lung tumor samples express CB1 and CB2, and that non-toxic doses of THC inhibited growth and spread in the cell lines. "When the cells are pretreated with THC, they have less EGFR stimulated invasion as measured by various in-vitro assays," Preet said.

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HEALING HEMP OIL

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UN: Drug-resistant malaria spreading in Asia

Editor's Note: Could this have to do anything with scientists release billions of genetically modified insects into the environment?

Associated Press

GENEVA – The World Health Organization says countries are not doing enough to detect drug-resistant malaria, which is spreading in Southeast Asia.

The U.N. health agency says there is evidence that type of malaria has now spread from Thailand's western border with Myanmar to its southeastern Cambodian border.

WHO says a strain of the mosquito-borne infectious disease resistant to the most effective antimalarial drugs emerged on the Myanmar border two years ago.

It warned that resistance to the malaria drug artemisinin could spread to African countries, just like it did with previous malaria treatments in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Shamanism is the Technology of the Spirit

Robert Tindall
Reality Sandwich

A little known fact is one of the greatest breakthroughs in 20th century medical science came from a preparation used to shoot monkeys down from the tops of trees. Naked "primitives" running around the jungle with blowguns turned out to be master chemists whose curare, a paralyzing muscle relaxant, revolutionized the practice of anaesthesiology, making possible the open heart, organ transplant and hundreds of other surgeries now performed daily in hospitals around the world.

Many experts claim the teeming life of the rainforests continues to promise cures -- to AIDS, cancer, diabetes, auto-immune disorders. Yet where are these miracle drugs? Have we exhausted Nature's cornucopia? Or are we wearing blinders that prevent us from seeing them?

We decided to pose this question to Dr. Mark Plotkin. One of the generation of swashbuckling ethnobotanists trained by the legendary Amazonian explorer Richard Evans Schultes at Harvard, Plotkin is as intimate with the shamans of the jungle and their healing practices as any Westerner now alive -- and he claims the cures are there. He's seen them.


As a young man, Plotkin heeded his mentor's call to go forth and apprentice himself to the Indians. Living for many years with different Amazonian tribes, Plotkin eventually authored several books, including Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice and Medicine Quest. He also co-founded the Amazon Conservation Team with prominent Costa Rican conservationist Liliana Madrigal.

ACT is one of the few non-profit organizations determined to put itself out of a job by handing all its powers over to those it is trying to save. And "save" it literally is: hundreds of tribes and their ancient systems of knowledge have gone extinct in the years since European contact, and just as the survival of the Amazon rainforest is now at stake, the ancient cultures of the forest could vanish as well within a generation. That is, unless astute visionaries like Mark Plotkin and his tribal colleagues have their way.

The fifty-two year old ethnobotanist appeared for our interview nearby the UC Berkeley campus accompanied by a shaman from the Ingano tribe, a soft-spoken middle-aged man, Don Fernando, wearing a baseball cap, whom Plotkin had brought to the United States as part of a campaign to protect his people from the violent incursions of timber and oil companies. Before arriving, Plotkin had emphasized, "You can photograph me, but no photos of the shaman. If his image got back to Colombia, it could be very dangerous." Both of them wore jeans and native jewelry and spoke with an easy familiarity that indicated mutual respect.

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