Pot finding could help anorexics

2005-10-31 09:44

Sydney - It's well known that smoking cannabis makes you hungry. What wasn't so well known is why this is so.

In a breakthrough that may help in stimulating the appetite of anorexics, or blunting the hunger pains of dieters, Australian researchers have found the receptors in the brain that make marijuana users ravenous.

"Because smoking cannabis increases appetite, it was believed that this was somehow related to the effects of cannabis on some brain centre," University of New England researcher Paul Mallet said.

"But that was until now not identified."

"We've actually identified which part of the brain is responsible for THC's effect on the stimulation of appetite."

THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the active ingredient in cannabis.

Mallet told national broadcaster ABC that his team in Armidale, New South Wales, using rats for their experiments, injected THC into a specific region of the brain's hypothalamus, known to control feeding behaviour. The area is called the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus.

The introduction of THC made the rats hungry. "What we find is that these rats get the munchies," Mallet said.

The finding has implications for the development of new drugs that could either increase appetite or suppress hunger by either blocking or stimulating certain specific cannabinoid receptors in the brain.

By pinpointing the part of the cannabinoid system in the brain that switches hunger on and off, it's now possible to foresee drugs that trick the brain into doing the same.

- SAPA