How cannabis research is progressing biology research

Cannabis is the only plant known to produce tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Genetic engineering could provide more efficient alternatives. Some researchers and biotechnology companies are wishful to replace cannabis plants with bacteria that have been genetically boosted to spit out THC, CBD and myriad other cannabinoids of pharmaceutical interest. Others are targeting to revise chemical synthesis in the cannabis plant by genetically varying its cells to make the preferred molecules from shoot to tip, thereby enhancing yield. The goal is the same like to produce cannabinoids more reasonably, proficiently and dependably than by conventional plant farming in greenhouses or farmers’ fields. Further benefits of microbial synthesis include the capability to mass-produce rare cannabinoids that are usually present in plants in only trace amounts.

A cannabis analyst with financial-services company AltaCorp Capital in Toronto, Canada David Kideckel, defines genetic engineering as a “disrupter” that assurances to take a centuries-old agricultural practice into the biotechnology era, with the resulting ripples being felt through the cannabis sector worldwide. Plants could be supplanted by microbes, when it comes to producing cannabis extracts, and a greater range of cannabinoids could become obtainable for use in medical and recreational products.

Preclinical and Clinical Evidence

Pre-clinical research (containing both cell culture and animal models) has shown CBD to have a range of effects that may be medicinally useful, comprising anti-seizure, neuroprotective, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, analgesic anti-psychotic, and anti-anxiety properties.

Anti-Psychotic Effects

Marijuana can produce severe psychotic episodes at high doses, and numerous studies have related marijuana use to increased risk for chronic psychosis in persons with particular genetic risk factors. Study advises that these effects are mediated by THC.  It has been proposed that CBD may lessen these effects.There have been a few small-scale medical trials in which patients with psychotic symptoms were cured with CBD, comprising case reports of patients with schizophrenia that reported incompatible results; a small case study in patients with Parkinson’s sickness with psychosis, which stated positive results; and one small randomized clinical trial reporting clinical progress in patients with schizophrenia treated with CBD. 

Anti-Tumor Effects

The use of cannabinoids in palliative treatments for cancer— it reduces pain and nausea and in increasing appetite. There are also numerous pre-clinical reports displaying anti-tumor effects of CBD in cell culture and in animal models.These studies have found reduced cell feasibility, increased cancer cell death, reduced tumor growth, and inhibition of metastasis. These findings have not yet been discovered in human patients.

Anti-Anxiety Effects

CBD has shown therapeutic effectiveness in a range of animal models of nervousness and stress, decreasing both behavioral and physiological measures of stress and anxiety. In adding, CBD has shown effectiveness in small human research laboratory and clinical trials. CBD has reduced anxiety in patients with social anxiety subjected to a traumatic public speaking task. In a laboratory procedure planned to model post-traumatic stress disorders, CBD developed “consolidation of extinction learning”. The anxiety-reducing effects of CBD seem to be mediated by modifications in serotonin receptor 1a signaling, though the specific mechanism remains to be clarified and more exploration is required.