Cannabidiol (CBD) prevents the metastasis of breast cancer
Id1 is called a DNA-binding protein inhibitor and is a protein in humans that is encoded by the ID1 gene. Cannabidiol (CBD) is the first external agent capable of regulating the Id1 protein in breast cancer cells. Blocking this function can stop the metastasis.
The worst stage of breast cancer is the last
When the cancer has metastasized and spread throughout the body, the end is near and very painful. However, a new cannabidiol (CBD) treatment has shown promising results in preventing late-stage breast cancer aggression.
In a study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, molecular biologists at California Pacific Medical Center tested human breast cancer cells that revealed that CBD could even slow or even stop the progression of the disease. in its most infectious, final stage.
For breast cancer sufferers, this is great news. Despite the overwhelming public support for breast cancer patients, breast cancer remains an insidious killer. The American Cancer Society says the average American woman has a 12% chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime, a higher rate than any other type of cancer other than skin cancer.
According to BreastCancer.org, approximately 266,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in women and 2,500 cases in men in the United States in 2018 alone. In the same time frame, the disease will kill approximately 41,000 American women.
One reason breast cancer is so deadly is that it often appears incurable when it metastasizes and moves beyond the breast tissue to other parts of the body. This is because the final stage of cancer life is medically poorly understood and therefore almost out of control. However, new findings about cannabidiol give scientists a new way to investigate.
Years ago, medical researchers discovered that a specific protein called Id1 was responsible for most of the progressive and aggressive behavior of late-stage breast cancer. In experiments on mice, the researchers found that by reducing the amount of this protein, the cancer became much less aggressive. In other words, blocking Id1 function could prevent breast cancer from metastasizing.
But there was a big problem. In the study in mice, the scientists used a special type of gene therapy called antisense to inactivate the Id1 protein, but this type of treatment is not applicable to humans. So the researchers needed a different kind of agent that would give the same results, but could be used in humans.
Also, any new agent should not only be able to inhibit the Id-1 protein, but also be non-toxic and with low side effects so that it can be used in cancer patients whose immune system is already weakened.
Fortunately, Cannabis came.
Cannabidiol (CBD), one of the active ingredients of Cannabis, is a non-toxic, non-psychotropic molecule that affects the human Endocannabinoid System without psychotropic action. Instead, it interacts with the Endocannabinoid System in a number of ways, many of which are still being discovered.
Scientists in California knew from previous research that CBD inhibited the metastasis of breast cancer in mice, but the exact mechanism by which this occurs is largely unknown. The scientists hypothesized that CBD could function like antiretroviral therapy and produce results by altering the expression of the Id1 protein in cancer cells, and they were right!
In a group discovery, researchers showed that CBD is the first external factor capable of regulating Id1 in human breast cancer cells. This paves the way for new and exciting treatments even for patients suffering from very bad cancer.
If breast cancer can be prevented from metastasizing or stopping early, the number of lives saved could be huge. This is not only good news for women or those with a family history of breast cancer diagnoses, it is good news for everyone.
Almost 85% of breast cancer diagnoses occur in women without a family history of the disease. And while American women are one in eight likely to develop breast cancer at some point in their lives, men are also at risk. According to current figures, about one in a thousand men living in the United States. will develop breast cancer.
And the benefits of a CBD-based cancer treatment are probably not limited to breast cancer. The scientists who discovered the effectiveness of CBD on the Id1 protein are optimistic that new and better drugs for patients with all types of cancer can be created based on this initial finding.
Imagine if modern medicine could prevent cancer from appearing in its final and deadliest form, then we could secure many more years of life for millions of people around the world, all thanks to a small plant.
Note All articles published here refer to information on all cannabinoids, but in Greece it is not possible to access THC (Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol), which is not yet legal in our country.
