Pregnenolone and Cannabis

The Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) of Bordeaux has recently conducted a research to determine the mechanisms behind addiction. In doing so, the experts involved in the study discovered that the human brain naturally produces a molecule, a steroid called pregnenolone, which not only serves as a protective agent for many brain activities but it is also able to protect us from any kind of addition to THC.

The study was published in Science, and shows that this molecule prevents the activation of the CB1, which a THC receptor.

To better understand how the pregnenolone works, first we need to understand what it is. This steroid can be considered as a precursor of other fundamental hormones such as progesterone and testosterone. It prevents the overstimulation of the THC receptors: it is a de facto antagonist. This natural antagonist is what determines, probably, the body’s ability to avoid developing an addiction to cannabis.

In addition to this, the mechanism that regulates this molecule can lead to various new therapeutic approaches for patients who suffer from addiction. For instance, it has been claimed that synthetic cannabinoids could truly become key players in this field. However, scientists don’t know how to use pregnenolone in an efficient way yet. When it gets administered orally, in fact, it is not fully absorbed by our body. And once it enters the blood stream, it turns into a different set of steroids.

All this, however, did not stop the researchers. The French team has already been working on pregnenolone derivatives, which are more stable than the pure molecule and do not undergo strange changes. These derivatives may, in turn, be transformed into compounds that can be used by the pharmaceutical industry to produce drugs. This new class of drugs promises to change many classic approaches to addictions, and clinical trials are already underway.

One of the most important points of the research consists in the discovery of the existence in the human brain of a steroid that protects our cognitive abilities, acts against reduction of memory, loss of motivation and obsessions, and also allows us to smoke addiction-free pot.

This is incredible, especially if we consider that fact that many legal substances are not only addictive but they also damage our body (see alcohol and tobacco).