The Half Decent Pharmaceutical Chemistry Blog

As I see it, Cannabinods are the last resort, when it comes to anti-emetic drugs. Dronabinol, above all, is just astonishing: this (major) component of Marijuana is the most potent remedy for nausea and vomiting caused by anti-cancer chemotherapy and for AIDS-related anorexia.

Now, for what concerns the latter effect, Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (another name for Dronabinol) seems to stimulate appetite through its action at the hunger centre, located in the hypothalamus. This phenomenon is often experienced by healthy people, who smoke Marijuana too...

Many anti-tumor drugs damage cells of the intestinal mucosa. As a result, vomiting is awfully common. Moreover, nausea frequently occurs BEFORE the patient has to take chemotherapeutics: this is a psychological issue, of course, since it's just an anticipatory response to a sadly well-known adverse effect.

Unsurprisingly, because it's a central effect, only a drug with marked central activity can help.



At this point, you're probably wondering how THC works, from a molecular point of view. Interestingly, there are specific G-coupled-receptors for these substance, either centrally and peripherally.
If there's an exogenous substance which reacts with its own receptor, there must be, obviously, an endogenous molecule normally binding there.

This substance is called Anandamide, from ananda, a Sanskrit expression which means "beatitude". Rather appropriate, eh?



Back to Dronabinol, this drug is orally administered. Although this doesn't eliminate most of the (side) effects you could experience when smoking marijuana, at least, it avoids pulmonary complications: the pyrolysis of THC, in fact, yields pretty toxic products (more toxic than those you get from cigarettes).

Still, sedation, euphoria (feel-good mood), dysphoria, hallucination, tachycardia and orthostatic hypotension remain drawbacks of Dronabinol.
It must be highlighted, by the way, that this drug is prescribed to terminal patients: anorexia, for example, usually arise in advanced AIDS, not at the onset.

So, long-term complications such as dependence and amotivational syndrome are far from being a major concern.

Multiple sclerosis and glaucoma are conditions for which Dronabinol is sometimes prescribed, too. THC has undoubtedly analgesic properties, which are welcome by people suffering from MS.

Parents all over the world regularly check their teenager sons' and daughters' eyes, looking for alarming redness of their eyes. However, THC has also proved its worth in lowering intraocular pressure, which explains its effectiveness in the therapy for glaucoma.