The cannabis plant has been used for millenia as a mind altering drug and medicine for many ailments. Prohibition in the United States forced it underground but never prevented its cultivation or hybridization.
At San Diego’s Salk Institute, Professor Todd Michael and his research team genetically sequenced 193 strains of cannabis to try to understand just what it’s capable of.
“We have this very important crop that people have been using for thousands of years and people know very little about it,” Michael said. “Turns out what we discovered is the plant has a massive amount of potential that we have really just started to understand and really build the tools to try to tap into.”
Michael showed us around a small lab at Salk where his genetic sequencing machines reside. In the lab, he works to unlock the secrets of cannabis. Information about the collection of cannabis genomes, made from those 193 sequences, was published in a recent edition of the journal Nature.
Michael said he’s sequenced thousands of plants and cannabis is the most interesting and various. And he wants to understand the plant’s many ways of making cannabinoids. Those are the chemical compounds that can alter our minds and bodies.
Of them, the best known cannabinoid is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the one which makes you high. But there are many more, created by a common molecular pathway. Those cannabinoids that result require a lot of acronyms to describe.
”CBD. CBG. CBC. All these cannabinoids that we want. We can actually manipulate this pathway and make many different types of cannabinoids which we now call minor cannabinoids,” Michael said.
Those cannabinoids, which are not psychoactive, interact with a set of human receptors, called the endocannabinoid system.
Some "minor" cannabinoids have proven to be pretty powerful. Cannabidiol (CBD) can control epileptic seizures. Anecdotal evidence shows it helps treat anxiety and chronic pain.
UC San Diego recently studied whether CBD could reduce disruptive behavior in boys with severe autism. Igor Grant, director of UCSD’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, said the results of the study were not definitive, but they were encouraging.
“About two thirds of the kids who got CBD were rated as improved overall by the clinicians, and only a third that got the placebo were seen as improved overall,” Grant said.
The search for health-enhancing cannabinoids has taken root in the private actor. Phylos Bioscience, based in Oregon, breeds many varieties of cannabis that can be grown from seed.
“And we have part of our breeding program dedicated to creating new clonal cultivars that have higher levels of these minor cannabinoids like THC-V or CBC,” said Alisha Holloway, the chief scientific officer at Phylos.
Holloway said one cannabinoid with a pretty good story is THC-V. That’s the psychoactive THC minus a couple of carbon atoms.
It’s been called diet weed because it gives you kind of the opposite of the munchies. Holloway said Phylos did a clinical trial that showed THC-V was energizing and reduced the appetite. So they bred a plant with plenty of it.
“And (we) worked on identifying genetic markers that could help us select for plants with higher levels of THC-V,” Holloway said. “And we developed those plants that now have 20 percent THC-V.”
There is a lot of excitement around cannabis these days. Hemp production is legal again, thanks to changes to the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill.
Grant wonders if cannabis deserves all the attention. He said many plants have molecules that could have positive effects in humans. Maybe we’ve discovered them in pot because its psychoactive effects have captured our attention.
“We as humans, throughout recorded history have sought to change how we feel. Right? And so cannabis is one way to do that. Alcohol is another way to do that. Opioids are yet another way,” Grant said.
Michael disagrees. He said the relationship between cannabis and cannabinoid receptors in the brain and the body make this plant different.
“I would say that it’s more than just that we like to get high. I would say there’s this very intimate relationship between this plant that makes something that invades not only our consciousness but our well-being,” Michael said.
Michael adds that cannabis is also easy to grow, producing high yields with minimal treatment. That means it’s good for producing other things like hemp fiber or cooking oil.
