(This is an excerpt of the Health Rounds newsletter, where we present latest medical studies on Tuesdays and Thursdays.)
By Nancy Lapid
(Reuters) -An experimental cannabis-derived medication was safer and more effective than placebo and opioids for treating chronic lower back pain in two late-stage trials, researchers said.
Treatment with VER-01, an extract from cannabis sativa DKJ127 L. being developed by Munich-based Vertanical, also improved pain-related sleep disturbances along with patients’ physical function and quality of life, according to separate reports of the trials.
“VER-01 could transform how we care for patients with chronic lower back pain,” Dr. Charles Argoff of Albany Medical College, who coauthored one of the reports, said in a statement.
“The results of the Phase 3 studies bring hope to millions living with chronic pain that, if approved, VER-01 could deliver effective pain relief while addressing key safety challenges of current therapies,” said Argoff, a past president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.
In one randomized trial of 820 patients with chronic low back pain, improvements were seen with VER-01 compared with a placebo after 12 weeks and were sustained over 12 months of treatment. The VER-01 group reported a nearly 3-point decrease in pain on a 10-point scale, on average, researchers reported in Nature Medicine.
The VER-01 group also reported significantly greater improvements in sleep quality and physical function compared with the placebo group, researchers said.
A second Phase 3 study, published in Pain & Therapy, compared Vertanical’s cannabis drug with opioids in 384 patients with chronic low back pain. Along with superior pain control, patients receiving VER-01 reported less constipation, less laxative use, and better sleep than patients taking opioids.
In both trials, pain reduction with VER-01 was particularly pronounced in patients with severe pain or pain from nerve disorders, the researchers said.
CYSTEINE-RICH DIET MAY HEAL DAMAGED INTESTINES
A dietary intervention may help heal intestinal damage from radiation or chemotherapy, a study in mice suggests.
A diet rich in the amino acid cysteine turns on an immune signaling pathway that helps stem cells to regrow new tissue to line the intestines, researchers reported in Nature.
High cysteine foods include pork, beef, chicken, fish, lentils, oatmeal, eggs, low-fat yogurt, sunflower seeds, and cheese.
In their study, the researchers began by feeding mice a diet high in one of 20 different amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Among these amino acids, cysteine had the most dramatic effects on stem cells and progenitor cells, which are immature cells that can differentiate into adult intestinal cells.
Further experiments revealed that when cells lining the intestine absorb cysteine from digested food, they convert it into molecules called CoA, which are then absorbed by immune cells called CD8 T cells. This stimulates the T cells to produce a protein called IL-22 that plays an important role in intestinal stem cell regeneration.
“Once activated, those IL-22-releasing T cells are primed to help combat any kind of injury that could occur within the intestinal lining,” the researchers said.
Also, in work that has not yet been published, they found that a high-cysteine diet had a regenerative effect following treatment with a chemotherapy drug called 5-fluorouracil. This drug, which is used to treat colon and pancreatic cancers, can also damage the intestinal lining.
If future research shows similar results in humans, then delivering elevated quantities of cysteine might dampen some chemotherapy or radiation-induced injuries to the intestinal lining, study leader Omer Yilmaz of MIT said in a statement.
“The beauty here is we’re not using a synthetic molecule, we’re exploiting a natural dietary compound,” Yilmaz said.
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(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
