this is from webmd pot fights cancer

yea dude it causes the cancer cells to die before reproducing. its a know fact there are NO long term side effects from cannabis and the ONLY short term side effect even in chronic users is short term memory lost.

 

federal government is only interested in $ made buy big business not the wellbeing of its citizens. they know it benefits immensely then it hurts but if it was legal who would go to the doc and buy expensive pills for EVERYTHING when u could jest grow your medicine

cannabis was also illegalized on the lie that it made u a rapist murderer and the govt knew this but they wanted to illegalize it so they could control mexican immigration.

 

Marijuana's Active Ingredient Kills Leukemia Cells

November 2005

The New Drug Study Group in London discovered that Δ9-THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, works to kill leukemia cells by affecting the gene, MKP3, which may serve as a critical target for new drugs that are less psychoactive and less controversial.

While leukemia treatment is largely successful, some patients cannot be treated with conventional therapy; 25 percent of children fail treatment, leaving them with a poor-prognosis outcome. Scientists have previously reported that Δ9-THC has anti-cancer properties, so its use as an anti-leukemia drug may be promising, however, the psychoactive side effects, as well as its current legal status, complicate its use in cancer chemotherapy. Researchers are now trying to identify the molecular pathways targeted by Δ9-THC in order to develop new drugs that combat the same disease-pathway without the unwanted side effects.

In a study published in the February 2005 issue of Blood, Dr. Wai Man Liu and colleagues at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London reported that Δ9-THC induced cell death in a panel of leukemia cells, including two AML cell lines. Surprisingly, Dr. Lui's group found that neither CB1 or CB2-the two receptors thought to mediate Δ9-THC effects-were involved in the leukemia cell death. Activation of the CB1 receptor in the brain produces the psychoactive effects associated with marijuana use. The CB2 receptor is usually found in cells of the immune system and may regulate immune function. Moreover, the anti-leukemia properties of Δ9-THC did not involve the p53 protein, which is often involved in cancer cell death; thus Δ9-THC did not appear to function through known pathways.

Liu and colleagues used Affymetrix microarrays to investigate the mechanism of cell death induced by Δ9-THC. In doing so, they found that one gene, MKP3, an inhibitor of the MAPK pathway, was significantly induced. This was unexpected, but provocative as the MAPK pathway is thought to be involved in tumor cell survival. Further experiments confirmed that Δ9-THC inhibited the MAPK pathway in leukemia cells, providing both a mechanism and a potential target pathway for other anti-leukemia drugs.

Using the Affymetrix Human Genome U133A 2.0 Arrays, the authors could simultaneously detect changes from more than 18,000 human genes in cells treated with Δ9-THC. This allowed the team to analyze thousands of genes beyond those previously thought to play a role in leukemia cell survival and death. The unbiased approach allowed the researchers to identify MKP3 and unravel the genetic pathways targeted by Δ9-THC.

Liu and his team have begun to uncover the mechanism by which Δ9-THC kills those cells and potentially promotes longer-term survival. This is a crucial first step towards the much-needed development of new therapies that can eradicate this deadly disease of affecting millions of children and adults worldwide.
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Breakthrough Discovered in Medical Marijuana Cancer Treatment

Tim King Salem-News.com
Researchers learned that cannabinoids have been associated with anti-carcinogenic effects, which are responsible in preventing or delaying the development of cancer.


Salem-News.com

(SALEM, Ore.) - A new study reveals that Medical Marijuana can be an effective treatment for cancer, that is the word announced by doctors in Germany who concluded that this clarification of the mechanism of cannabinoid action may help investigators to further explore their therapeutic benefit.

The medical article was originally published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute Advance Access and online on December 25th 2007.

Cancer cells that were treated with combinations of cannabinoids, antagonists of cannabinoid receptors, and small interfering ribo nucleic acid or 'siRNA' to tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1) were assessed for invasiveness, protein expression, and activation of signal transduction pathways.

The biggest contribution of this breakthrough discovery, is that the expression of TIMP-1 was shown to be stimulated by cannabinoid receptor activation and to mediate the anti-invasive effect of cannabinoids.

In other words, they learned that treatment with cannabinoids, one of the active ingredients of the medicinal side of marijuana, has been shown to reduce the invasiveness of cancer cells. Prior to now the cellular mechanisms underlying this effect were unclear and the relevance of the findings to the behavior of tumor cells in vivo remains to be determined.

It is already known that marijuana can stimulate the appetite of patients, but researchers have learned that cannabinoids, in addition to having palliative benefits in cancer therapy, have been associated with anti-carcinogenic effects, which are responsible in preventing or delaying the development of cancer.

"Although the anti-proliferative activities of cannabinoids have been intensively investigated, little is known about their effects on tumor invasion," the article stated.

Method

In this now completed round of research, Matrigel-coated and uncoated Boyden chambers were used to quantify invasiveness and migration, respectively, of human cervical cancer 'HeLa' cells that had been treated with cannabinoids.

The stable anandamide analog R(+)-methanandamide 'MA' and the phytocannabinoid 9-tetrahydrocannabinol 'THC' in the presence or absence of antagonists of the CB1 or CB2 cannabinoid receptors or of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) or inhibitors of p38 or p42/44 mitogen–activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways.

A method known as 'reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction' and immunoblotting were used to assess the influence of cannabinoids on the expression of matrix metalloproteinases and endogenous tissue inhibitors. The role of TIMP-1 in the anti-invasive action of cannabinoids was analyzed by transfecting HeLa, human cervical carcinoma, or human lung carcinoma cells cells with siRNA targeting TIMP-1.

They say all statistical tests were two-sided.

Results

Without modifying migration, MA and THC caused a time and concentration-dependent suppression of HeLa cell invasion through Matrigel that was accompanied by increased expression of TIMP-1.

At the lowest concentrations tested, MA and THC led to a decrease in cell invasion.

"The stimulation of TIMP-1 expression and suppression of cell invasion were reversed by pretreatment of cells with antagonists to CB1 or CB2 receptors, with inhibitors of MAPKs, or, in the case of MA, with an antagonist to TRPV1. Knockdown of cannabinoid-induced TIMP-1 expression by siRNA led to a reversal of the cannabinoid-elicited decrease in tumor cell invasiveness in HeLa, A549, and C33A cells."

The researchers concluded that increased expression of TIMP-1 mediates an anti-invasive effect of cannabinoids. That means that in our future, cannabinoids may offer a therapeutic option in the treatment of highly invasive cancers.

Special thanks to the JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and to Burkhard Hinz, PhD, Institute of Toxicology and Pharmacology, University of Rostock and the affiliation of authors: Institute of Toxicology and Pharmacology, University of Rostock in Rostock, Germany.

The original report published by Oxford University Press was titled, "Inhibition of Cancer Cell Invasion by Cannabinoids via Increased Expression of Tissue Inhibitor of Matrix Metalloproteinases-1Robert Ramer, Burkhard Hinz."
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BUT

Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of South Florida College of Medicine, MDC Box 10, 12901 Bruce Downs Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33612, USA. tklein@hsc.usf.edu
The study of marijuana cannabinoid biology has led to many important discoveries in neuroscience and immunology. These studies have uncovered a new physiological system, the endocannabinoid system, which operates in the regulation of not only brain function but also the regulation of the immune system. Studies examining the effect of cannabinoid-based drugs on immunity have shown that many cellular and cytokine mechanisms are suppressed by these agents leading to the hypothesis that these drugs may be of value in the management of chronic inflammatory diseases. In this report, we review current information on cannabinoid ligand and receptor biology, mechanisms involved in immune suppression by cannabinoids with emphasis on antigen-presenting cells, and preclinical and clinical models analyzing the therapeutic potential of cannabinoid-based drugs.
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Just one of many things holding marijuana back from being used in medical treatments.