A group of researchers from Spain and Serbia investigated the potential role of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in cancer treatment. More specifically, the study investigated the possible involvement of this neural network's infamous CB1 and CB2 receptors that are located throughout every tissue and organ of the human body, including the brain and bones.
The ECS, discovered only as recently as the early 1990s by researchers in Israel, produces molecules believed to be involved in physical and mental health called endocannabinoids. The major endocannabinoids are anandamide and 2-AG. However, the active compounds from hemp and cannabis, including phytocannabinoids such as CBD (cannabidiol), CBG (cannabigerol), and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) directly bind with the CB1 and CB2 receptors of the ECS.
Botanically sourced CBD and THC from cannabis are categorized as mimetic molecules because they mirror the functionality of the endocannabinoids 2-AG and anandamide, respectively. Also of note is the fact that the human endocannabinoid system is believed to have evolved after the hemp plant, meaning that it was possibly human biochemistry that was adapting to or leveraging particular phyto-molecules, including CBD and THC.
The scientists noted that CB1 receptors in the ECS and their CB2 siblings are members of a "large family of membrane proteins called G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR)."
The researchers cited the large amount of research that occurred during the decade before their study, which they referred to as an "immense data load." The scientists cited the ECS's dual role in tumor formation, tumor growth inhibition, and metastatic spread prevention.
The study tersely defined the ECS in a manner that can be more easily understood by laypeople: "A complex network of cannabinoid receptors, endocannabinoid ligands, the enzymatic machinery that drives their biosynthesis, degradation, and transport, and all cells and neurological pathways that involve endocannabinoid signaling."
The researchers noted that "although the search for cancer biomarkers usually favors single targets that enable the exploitation of a biochemical or genetic weakness, marking the vast ECS as a pharmacologically targetable entity brings as many advantages as complications."
The detailed study noted that the underlying mechanisms involved in ECS processes, including those bodily processes that the ECS itself regulates, "include practically every pathway important in cancer biology." Thus, the study's authors noted that "it is not a matter of chance that ECS components can exert anti-proliferative, pro-apoptotic, anti-angiogenic, anti-metastatic and anti-inflammatory effects [against cancer], depending on tumor type and specific setting."
The study reported that the "anti-proliferative action of many plant-derived, endogenous, and synthetic cannabinoids has been documented." It reported that a synthetic cannabinoid, WIN-55,212-2, features "a higher affinity for [CB1 and CB2 receptors] than THC, but lower concentrations of THC are needed for the comparable cancer cell death-inducing response."
The study noted that the endocannabinoid system and "all its components" may play a role in future treatment therapies for a variety of types of cancer. Like other studies, it noted that these mechanisms must be "rigorously clinically tested...to exploit its full potential.”
The authors of the study concluded that "Taking into account all the ethical issues involved in the use of ECS exogenous ligands in anti-cancer therapy and the number of ongoing clinical trials, we are definitely still not there yet, but the route is firm and sprinkled with hope for success."
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