The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 275 No 7362 p188
13 August 2005

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Cannabis relief in IBD

Scientists investigating anecdotal evidence that patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) find relief from using cannabis have found a possible explanation for this effect.

After examining bowel tissue samples from healthy people and IBD patients and analysing the concentrations of cannabinoid receptors in the colon, researchers found that colon tissue samples from healthy people tested positive for the CB1 receptor, while the tissue from IBD sufferers became more positive for CB2 receptors as their disease progressed.

The researchers propose that the CB2 receptor is a potential target for the development of cannabis-based drugs to treat IBD. They also found that the CB1 receptor helps promote wound healing in the gut lining (Gastroenterology 2005;129:437).