Pubdate: Sun, 13 Jan 2002
Source: Sunday Star-Times (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2002 Sunday Star-Times
Contact:  http://www.mapinc.org/media/1064
Author: Geraldine Johns

AUCKLAND SCIENTIST STUDIES THE REAL DOPE

New research into cannabis may help find a new drug for Aids and cancer 
patients.

A team at Auckland's Liggins Institute is exploring the active chemical in 
cannabis - tetrahydrocannabinol or THC - in a bid to find a drug that 
produces the therapeutic effects of the raw material without the side-effects.

In the interests of science, research scientist Dr Michelle Glass has a 
licence to possess and import THC. But despite the abundance of good 
quality local produce on the underground market, she has to bring the drug 
in from off-shore. And until it arrives, Glass is making do with synthetics 
- - with all experiments conducted in test-tubes.

It's well known that cannabis can stimulate the appetite and suppress 
nausea in Aids patients and those receiving chemotherapy, says Glass. Other 
studies have shown that cannabis can help reduce spastic attacks in 
multiple sclerosis patients, as well as ease phantom limb pain, she adds.

Aided by a grant from the Auckland Medical Research Foundation, Glass will 
spend the next two years trying to find compounds that will produce the 
positive effects of cannabis without the unwanted ones.

When patients smoke cannabis, the THC binds to sites in the brain which 
trigger the activation of proteins which produce different physiological 
responses.

The team wants to find out if they can alter the structure of the 
cannabis-like substances so only one family of proteins is activated - 
those with only positive effects.

The Auckland University-trained scientist, now also a senior lecturer in 
pharmacology at the university's School of Medicine, is a shining example 
of the brain gain. Glass returned to New Zealand and the Liggins Institute 
last year after spending five years at the National Institute of Health in 
Washington DC.

She turned her back on an abundance of funding and her own laboratory to 
return to the uncertain world of medical research in her homeland, where 
grants are always hard to come by.

Her present research is an extension of her US studies and, especially 
post-September 11, she says she is sure she made the right decison.

- - As well as the Auckland Medical Research Foundation grant of $50,000 a 
year for two years, Glass has received a prestigious Marsden Grant which 
will extend her studies further to morphine and other opiate-related compounds.
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MAP posted-by: Beth