Cannabinoid News and Research

Latest Cannabinoid News and Research

NMS Labs launches method for K2 drug metabolites detection in urine

Of growing concern to public health officials and law enforcement is that routine drug testing cannot detect the use of the popular and highly intoxicating new drugs K2 and Spice. NMS Labs now has a full menu of tests that can detect the use of the designer chemicals present in these products, sold as incense or legal highs. A few weeks ago, NMS Labs launched a blood test to detect a range of these laboratory-designed synthetic drugs.

16 Sep 2010

Cannabis Science seeks entry into European medical cannabis market

Cannabis Science Inc., a pioneering US biotech company developing pharmaceutical cannabis products, is pleased to announce that the Company is currently raising working capital in the European market and pursuing listings on the Frankfurt and other major European exchanges.

30 Aug 2010

Continuous boosting of natural painkiller shuts down brain cell receptor response

ERepeatedly boosting brain levels of one natural painkiller soon shuts down the brain cell receptors that respond to it, so that the painkilling effect is lost, according to a surprising new study led by Scripps Research Institute and Virginia Commonwealth University scientists. The study has important implications for drug development.

25 Aug 2010

CeNeRx BioPharma raises $13 million through Series C financing to support TriRima Phase II trial

CeNeRx BioPharma, Inc., a clinical stage company developing and commercializing innovative treatments for diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), today announced completion of a $13 million Series C financing. Existing investors Perseus Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund, L Capital Partners and Pappas Ventures all participated in the financing. CeNeRx plans to use the proceeds to conduct a Phase II trial of its improved formulation of its novel antidepressant TriRima™.

13 Aug 2010

Drugs that reduce activity of ABDH6 enzyme can prevent brain damage: Study

A newly discovered molecular mechanism helps control the amount and effectiveness of a substance that mimics an active ingredient in marijuana, but that is produced by the body's own nerve cells.

7 Aug 2010

Scientists develop obesity drug without neurological side effects

The drug rimonabant was developed as a treatment for obesity and its myriad of serious health consequences. Despite having its desired effects on weight, which it decreased, and on levels of glucose and fats in the blood, rimonabant was never approved for use in the US because of serious neurological side effects including depression and anxiety. Now, a team of researchers, led by George Kunos, at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, and Alexandros Makriyannis, at Northeastern University, Boston, have developed a drug that has the same positive effects in mice on levels of glucose and fats in the blood as rimonabant but none of the neurological side effects.

27 Jul 2010

New drug to treat chronic pain in SCD patients

A University of Minnesota Medical School research team led by Kalpna Gupta, Ph.D., has discovered that cannibinoids offer a novel approach to ease the chronic and acute pain caused by sickle cell disease.Using a mouse model of SCD, Gupta and University of Minnesota colleagues studied the pain mechanisms by observing animals that exhibited both musculoskeletal pain and temperature sensitivity, symptoms similarly experienced by humans with SCD. The team compared two classifications of drugs in their ability to manage pain sensed by the animals, the traditionally prescribed classification of drugs, opioids, with a new therapeutic approach, cannabinoids, a synthetic compound based on marijuana derivatives. Currently, the only approved treatment for management of severe pain in SCD is opioids.

23 Jul 2010

Experimental anti-obesity and diabetes drug avoids risk of psychiatric side effects: Study

A second-generation experimental anti-obesity and diabetes drug has shown promise in reducing body weight in rodents just as effectively as the predecessor rimonabant while avoiding the risk of psychiatric side effects that led to the withdrawal of rimonabant from the market and stopped further development of other brain-penetrating drugs of its type.

12 Jul 2010

LSUHSC awarded $4M grant to study cannabinoid treatment for HIV infection

Patricia Molina, MD, PhD, Professor and Head of Physiology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has been awarded a $4 million grant over five years by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health to study how cannabinoids, the principal psychoactive component of marijuana, produce subtle changes in gene activity that affect how a person responds to HIV infection.

8 Jul 2010

Studies demonstrate analgesic properties of synthetic cannabinoid

A new compound similar to the active component of marijuana (cannabis) might provide effective pain relief without the mental and physical side effects of cannabis, according to a study in the July issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).

2 Jul 2010

Study shows direct cellular interaction between endocannabinoids and alcohol in the brain

In findings that should finally put to rest a decade of controversy in the field of neurobiology, a team at The Scripps Research Institute has found decisive evidence that a specific neurotransmitter system-the endocannabinoid system-is active in a brain region known to play a key role in the processing of memory, emotional reactions, and addiction formation. The new study also shows that this system can dampen the effects of alcohol, suggesting an avenue for the development of drugs to combat alcohol addiction.

13 May 2010

Non-psychoactive cannabis to be unveiled at Annual National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics

The availability of a new type of medical cannabis strain will be presented for the first time by Steve DeAngelo, who has been featured on CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, and The New York Times as Executive Director of one of the nation's top model and non-profit medical cannabis dispensaries, Harborside Health Center in Oakland, California.

9 Apr 2010

Call to ban Miaow-Miaow - Mephedrone

Mephedrone also known as “m-cat” or “miaow-miaow” is a synthetic stimulant drug that has effects similar to amphetamines and ecstasy. Mephedrone use has spread fast in UK since it emerged at a pop festival on the Isle of Wight in July last year.

30 Mar 2010

Positive results from INSYS Therapeutics' phase III trial for Fentanyl SL Spray

INSYS Therapeutics, Inc. announces positive results from the pivotal phase III efficacy trial for patients utilizing the Fentanyl Sublingual Spray technology to treat breakthrough cancer pain. All primary and secondary endpoints were achieved in the study, and the drug is the first product to ever show statistically significant pain relief when measuring the summary of pain intensity difference at five minutes in a phase III breakthrough cancer pain trial using Fentanyl.

9 Mar 2010

PTSD drug: Cannabis Science to file first application for FDA clinical trials

Cannabis Science Inc., a pharmaceutical cannabis company in the US, is pleased to announce that it now has the results of its survey of more than 1,300 individuals with PTSD, including a large cohort of veterans. The survey was conducted by Cannabis Science Advisory Board member Dr. Mitch Earleywine PhD. of the State University of New York (Albany).

2 Mar 2010

Cannabis promising for certain pain-related medical conditions, CMCR presents findings to California legislature

Researchers from the University of California's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR) have found "reasonable evidence that cannabis is a promising treatment" for some specific, pain-related medical conditions. Their findings, presented today to the California legislature and public, are included in a report available on the CMCR web site at http://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu

18 Feb 2010

Marijuana ineffective against Alzheimer's disease in animal model

The benefits of marijuana in tempering or reversing the effects of Alzheimer's disease have been challenged in a new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute.

8 Feb 2010

New clinical study: CeNeRx BioPharma's CXB722 has potential as novel anxiolytic

CeNeRx BioPharma, Inc., a clinical stage company developing and commercializing innovative treatments for diseases of the central nervous system, today reported that a new clinical study shows that its investigational compound CXB722 has potential as a novel anxiolytic, demonstrating a significant effect on both endocrine and cardiovascular biomarkers associated with stress.

13 Jan 2010

Endocannabinoid modulation of sweet taste receptors may help control feeding behavior

Sweet taste responses were enhanced by endocannabinoids in every case. The effect was specific for sweet taste, as endocannibinoids had no effect on responses to sour, salty, bitter or umami taste stimuli.

22 Dec 2009

Cannabis for Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease treatment

Chemicals found in cannabis could prove an effective treatment for the inflammatory bowel diseases Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease, say scientists.

17 Dec 2009